Solitary and Rebellion
by Ominous-Advent
Summary: When searching for a way to revive her friends from their crystal slumber is forgotten, Lightning becomes tangled in a string of events along side two others, as she tries to remember what it is she set out to do. Contains OC's
1. Chapter 1

_**DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN FINAL FANTASY OR ITS CHARACTERS CREDIT TO SQUARE ENIX**_

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><p><em><strong>Bold Italic=Flash back<strong>_

_'Italic'=thought_

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><p><em><strong>"There you are!"<strong>_

_**The blonde ran to her side and threw his arm around the pinkette's neck. Uncomfortable, she growled and shrugged his arm from around her. The blonde didn't seem to mind, only laughing at her gesture.**_

_**"You've been distancing yourself quite a bit you know, You're barely around anymore Lightning."**_

_**He would say soon stopping and joining her. "I've been, busy..helping PSICOM.." she said only speaking half the truth.**_

_**"Sure.." The male replied chalantly.**_

_**she blinked her icy hues but didn't turn to even make any eye contact with him. A brief scilence shrouded them both until Snow broke it.**_

_**"Look Light, what happened was not your fault, they did it to save us all..so you can stop bla-"**_

_**"Who said I was blaming myself for anything!" She snapped back defesively, finally glaring angerily at Snow. Her gaze softened and she stared down at the the soft and plush jade grass.**_

_**"Well it's clearly obvious Light. I'm not the only one who's seeing this. You've been disappearing for days and sometimes even weeks. You're worrying us all but mostly Serah."**_

_**Lightning rolled her eyes and scouffed in a disgusted manner. The last thing she wanted was to be lectured by this guy. "Tch, what are you all so worried about. I'm alive aren't I..wonder how you all would react if I was dead."**_

_**Snow chortled and caused the pinkette to stare at him. "What!" She asked sternly.**_

_**"It's just seems that ever since Vanille and Fang left us, You've seemed lost.."**_

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><p>"Farron!"<p>

Lightning shook her head as the familiar voice rang through her ears. She looked up to see a pale skinned male with shaggy brown hair a dark purple soldier uniform standing in front of her. "Oh, Xayne what do you want?" She asked coldly. Xayne huffed and and mumbled something incoherent then crossed his arms. "I swear, now I see why they don't let females join, I've been standing here calling you for the past five minuets, the President wants to see you! he says it's urgent!" Lightning noded, totally ignoring Xayne's smug comment and walked out the door and headed to the president's office.

As she walked through the building's long corridors, she could see and hear many of the other soldiers whispering and gossiping about her as she walked by. Most were talking about how she made it to the highest rank in the army in less then three weeks. Some called her the super soldier and others were just being completely bias with their opinions saying that she only made it because she was a female and the missions and assignments she was given weren't nearly as challenging as the ones the males received. But Lightning just toned them out. Currently her mind was else where.

_**"Hey Snow, it's said in some other reigon that there is this energy that lies below the reigon's surface. It's said if you can obtain the power of this "said" energy anything is possible." Lightning gazed over at the frozen Cocoon and thought about her lost friends maybe this energy was real and if it is then maybe, just maybe she could...**_

_**"Who know's Light, probably does..Then again what if it doesn't?"**_

"What is this..." She whispered to herself as another one of those unknown flashes came across her mind. She'd been having them more often and the people in them were of no familiarity to her. But who were they? She came back to reality and realized she was in front of the President's door. She cursed herself mentally for wandering off into lala land then entered the office.

"There you are Farron, please take a seat." The President said as he pulled a cigar to his lips to take a puff. Lightning pulled the chair from the desk and sat down crossing her legs in a laguid fashion. "What is it Sir?" The President smirked softly at the stern female he always liked how the woman always wanted to get straight to business. "Well, I'm pretty sure you are aware of the current situation that's at hand are you not?"

"Situation Sir?" She asked curiosity laced in her voice.

The President planted his elbows on the desks smooth surface and rested his chin on top of his folded hands "Did you happen to go to the last meeting that was given Ms. Farron?" He asked already knowing the answer.

"Yes I did attend but there was no discussion about this situation you speak of."

"I see." The Presidet pulled a file from the drawer containing lots of documents and momos and dropped it onto the desks surface making a loud thud. "What's this sir?" She asked as she reached for the file to skim through it. "That's the file of one of our Ex-Soldiers. Was here way before your time Farron." The woman averted her gaze from the file and back to the man in front of her. "So, what's he have to do with me?"

"Well Farron, I need your help, I've heard of your exellence in missions and I doubt you'll let me down with this one. I need you to catch this man and bring him back to me."

Lightning's eyebrows narrowed at his request. "No disrespect sir, but may I ask what is the reason that I'm going after this man?"

"That man is dangerous Farron. A terrorist. What you should know is, that thousands maybe even a larger amount is out to see the fall of this company for reasons that are confidential. And that man," his finger reached and pointed to the said person's photo on the file. "Is one of the many thousand who is an endangermant to my company. I've sent out dozens of my men but they all failed. Another group has been sent out as we speak. It's only a matter of time before he strikes again. So I'm turning this mission over to you. I know you're the newest but word about your skills has gotten around fast and I believe you are the one who can bring this bastard down."

Lightning said nothing else to the man. She just gave a firm nod and stood to her feet. "Very well Sir, if that is all I'm ready to get this over with."

The President smirked and took another puff from his cigar. "Knew I could count on you Farron, be sure to check every town in Midgar. he likes to blend in with the citizens to keep a low profile."

"Alright sir."

"Dismissed!"

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><p>Lightning was now on a large plain covered in nothing but jade greenery, streatching on for who knows how long. Many species roamed around wreaking havock on other wildlife. Small flocks of Chocobos running about nibbling at the green grass. Some how, this place reminded her of somewhere she'd been before but she couldn't quite put a finger on it.<p>

It had been a year and three months since she had strangely found herself in this little city called Midgar. All she was able to remeber is waking up in an all white room and being surrounded by three or four men in white lab coats. Everything before that was unclear and foggy. The soldier sighed. While she was lost in her thoughts she unknowingly wondered off into the woods. She looked around in hopes to find where she entered but was unsucsessful she was already too far in. "Dammit.." she grumbled to herself for being so carless

BANG BANG BANG!

"Gunshots?"

Another set of gunshot went off in the distance. It sounded as if it were coming from in the back of her. Lightning pivoted off her right foot and turned facing the east and the gunshots sounded again. It probably was some soldiers the President sent out and they came across that fugitive. Without a second thought, she dashed off into the woods at full speed.

**~xxxxxx~**

The sound of gunshots could still be heard within the woods but Lightning was having trouble finding the exact location. She started becoming more and more irritated by the second. it seemed the further in she traveled the more faint the gunshots became until she could no longer hear anything. "Great.." she huffed out of irritation. Just then her footsteps halted when she heard the bushes rustling. a gloved hand gripped her weaopn when three wolf looking beast hopped out. The three beasts growled as they made their way closer towards the female and circled her. "Tch, nice..." The words escaped her lips almost like she were calm. She pulled her weapon from the holdster and switched it into sword mode as she charged off at the beast. One of the beasts jumped at her, with a quick motion she cuts that one in half with a diagonal slash, After that she took a few swift side steps and swung her sword up the center of the second beast cutting it in half. Now she was down to the last beast. The rabid creature's attack time was perfect! But still it wasn't quick enough. The soldier still had the upper hand. She performed two back flips and landed gracefully back on the ground, just a few feet away from the beast. She rushed at the creature for the last time and stabbed it right through the throat. "Easy..." She switched the sword back to gun mode and resumed her journey through the forest, well tried. This time she heard footsteps and they were coming at a fast pace, but couldn't determine what direction they were coming from.

The Pinkette returned to her battle stance, ready to attack once again. Chances were it probably was another wolf. Lightning turned her head from right to left until she saw a figure coming into view. She drew Blaze Edge but kept it in its gunmode and aimed it at the figure as it neared her. He had short messy two-toned color hair that was made up of burgundy and black, strange sea foam green glowing eyes and wore what appeared to be a tattered soldier's uniform. wounds were visible all over his slightly muscular upper body. "That's..." She wasn't exactly sure so she waited until the figure got closer. The soldier's weapon still remained aimed at the unfamiliar male who soon came to an abrupt stop with a look of dumbstruct written across his face.

"It is, wow this was much easier then I thought, this guy must be a complete idiot. Or he's just bold."

"You're, you're not a turk!" He exclaimed. "Who in the hell are you, answer me and I maybe I won't cut you up!" His voice was demanding and rude, he obviously was irritated about something.

She stared the guy down for a few seconds before her stare shifted into a cold glare. She forced the weapon to his head and her finger pressed gently against the trigger on the gun as if she were ready to shoot. "No, I'm not a Turk, I'm ten times worse then a Turk actually, but who I am is no importance to you. " He smirked mockingly and slowly circled around her ignoring the fact he had a gun pointed at him. He slowly observed her. "Hmmm well your definitely not an ordinary broad. exactly where did you come from?". The male said as he stopped circling her and took a few steps towards her with a curious look upon his face as he observed her attire. Sleeveless black over coat with a grey turtle neck underneath, metallic black pouldrons over both shoulders bearing three white stripes, A royal blue cape attatched to the back of her uniform, short grey sleeve on her right arm, knee-high leather combat boots and a short black mini skirt with the sheath to her weapon attached to the back. Her attire was nothing he'd seen before and began to think she was in cahoots with that company just like himself but he never remembered there being any female operatives.

Lightning answered the males questions with one of her blank stares. She lowered her weapon that she had pointed at him moments earlier and placed it back into the holdster. He seemed harmless. was this really the guy the President was after? or maybe he was just an imposter. Then again who would want to impersonate someone who has a thousand and one warrents on their head? Initially she was going to call in and report her success of the mission but was interrupted by the sounds of helicopters above. The first one didn't grab her attention as much as the second. However, the man seemed to panic. His head shot up to the sky as the sound of the helicopter was heard soaring right above them. Because they were protected by the trees the choppers stood no chance of even catching them. But then there were two more just not too far away from the previous one and it was then that he became slightly concerned.

"Dammit, this is not looking so good."

She took the man's words into concern but wasn't nearly as on edge as he was. After all it was only the Shin-Ra coming to arrest this threat. Before she had the chance to respond to him he was gone. As the helicopter drew closer she could see why. A large explosion could be heard coming from the west ends of the forest and another one was heard coming from the east. The helicopters were currently bombing out the entire forest with explosive shells.

"This can not be happening.."

What was the hell were they doing? Lightning turned and bolted off just moments before the next one had a chance to hit the ground. The explosives continued dropping and she could feel the heat from the flames against her skin. Luckily the forest exit was near otherwise this could have been a death trap for her. The fire was growing at a rapid speed but by the time the last explosive hit, Lightning was thrown out of the woods due to the impact of the explosion and onto the green plush grass. The bombings aftermath caused an enourmous fire that swallowed up what remained of the forest. Stray pieces of the flames caught up in the winds patterns and fell off on to the ground. Lightning picked herself and stood to her full height. dust, and debris lingered in the air around her. She turned in time to notice the man taking out one of the helicopters with some fire attack he conjured up and tossed at the arieal vehicle, knocking it from its place in the sky. A triumphant grin played across his lips but the male soon fell to his knees from weakness, and much to his disliking, two more Shin-Ra choppers flew in.

"Dammit, no, I can't die here!" two groups of five Shinra reinforcments poured from the chopper and surrounded the injured male with their weapons pointed at him to make sure he made no type of move. A male dressed in an all black business suit and had dark brown hair pushed back in a ponytail approached Lightning. His face held no expression but his eyes read differently. "Well done Farron, The president will be pleased with your capturing of this man. Return to head quarters and report to the president immediately, we will take it from here. He said dryly as he took a look over his shoulder at the soldiers boarding the fugitive into the chopper. "Only did what I was ordered to do sir." She answered coolly. "What's going to happen to him?"

The male turned his attention back to the stoic woman and shook his head. "I am not liable to discuss that information freely with you Ms. Farron. It's strictly _confidential._ But I assure you that he will be taken care of." To avoid further questioning the male turend and headed for the chopper.

"Whatever..." The female mumbled under her breath. Everything was always confidential when it came to these people. It was probably paranoia. Paranoia that if one soldier knew too much then they might try to accomplish what that "alleged" terrorist tryed to accomplish. But if that's the case then why continue to recruit outsiders? Something was not falling into place here...

_BANG BANG!_

"The hell!" Lightning whirled around as the gunshots sounded and turned toward the chopper. Out ran the "alleged" terrorist in a full sprint but due to his current condition he didn't get too far. The soldiers caught up to him in no time flat and escorted him back to the chopper. The unrelenting male struggled with all his might to pull from the the soldier's tight grasp but being fatigued he had no chance. "Son-of-a-" his sentence was inturrupted the moment the butt of one of the soldiers guns connected with the side of his head. "Shuddup!" One of the men spat but the man continued flapping his lips. "You Shin-Ra scum have it comming, I'm not the only one out to destroy your precious little company. I'm sure many other rebel groups are out to do just what I intended to do!" Were his last words before the chopper shut and took to the skies.

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><p>"You're nothing more then a show off Farron!" Xayne shouted rudely at his partner.<p>

"Shut up your complaining and help me!" The large beast roared and swung its arm out in attempt to hit the woman but missed. Lightning dodged the Behemoth's massive paw. Its other arm swiftly extended to grab Xayne but in turn he stabbed it through the shoulder blade. The beast roared as it cried out in pain, flailing its arms about in a rage. Lightning smirked and ran up a nearby wall parrying the beast's on coming attack while Xayne swipped it off its feet with a swift attack to its legs. The Behemoth howled out and fell backwads onto the ground with a loud thud, shattering the asphalt upon impact.

"I got this Farron!"

"No stay where you are!" The stubborn and reckless male charged at the beast only to be kicked back by a few yards.

"Idiot!" Lightning yelled as the beast regained its stability. She was now positioned in back of the Behemoth but the beast was too stupid to recognized it. Lightning took this time to preemptively strike it before had time to notice her.

The stoic woman dashed at full speed, pushed herself off the ground and came down piercing the rabid creature through its skull. Right then, the beast lifeless body fell limply to the ground.

Lightning climbed off the beasts back breathing heavily as the monster and the scenery around her slowly disappeared. She walked over to her injured partner who was peeling himself off the floor of the now white room.

"See where being reckless got you?" She scolded.

He stood up from the floor holding his fractured arm as he glared at the woman. "Save your lectures for someone else Farron, I don't care to hear them." He walked out the simulation room angrily mumbling something that Lightning could care less about.

"And another accomplished mission for the infamous Lightning Farron!" A baratone voice answered smugly.

"Hello to you too Sephiroth.." Lightning answered in a dead panned voice as she removed the device from over her eyes to better see the man. Sephiroth was positioned against the wall weapon in hand. Lightning never conversated to much of anyone in the entire army and neither did Sephiroth which is why they got along so well on and off of the battlefield.

"Keep this type of thing up and the world will be looking up to a new _hero_."

"I'm no hero Sephiroth, I do what I do to keep people safe from external threats. I garuntee you that a good population of SOLDIER operatives joined up only to be like their _idol_ Sephiroth. At least that was the reason for half the crew I enlisted with. As far as I see you, you're just an egotistic jerk. But I accept that since your not a half bad fighter. But know this, your not the only hero you know." She said bluntly.

He smirked and moved from his place on the wall and walked to the woman keeping his eyes on her carefully. "Brilliant deduction you have there but your far off. I fight for the exact same reason as you. There is nothing wrong with having a hero complex as long as you know your limits."

She scouffed. "You have no limits."

"And you do?"

"..."

"Exactly." He slowly began to circle the woman." I'm sure there was a time in your life where you went to extraordinary lengths to save another. Did you have limits then?"

She thought for a second or two before answering. "I wouldn't know because I never had anyone in my life worth saving.." She said as she walked towards the exit of the simulation room. "However, if I did I'd do everything and everything I could to save them."

"I rest my case then." He threw her the virtual visor in which she caught in her hand."I could use a sparring partner right now."

"No problem there."

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><p>When Lightning got home the very first think she did was fall out on the couch. Sparring with Sephiroth certainly tired her out and at the same time made her body extremely sore. She may have gained the title of "the super soldier" from other operatives but she was far from it. Sephiroth on the other hand, he was in a catagory all by himself. She would never tell him that though. The exhausted woman sighed and slowly closed her eyes and slipped into a deep sleep.<p>

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><p><em>"You promised.."<em>

_'What?'_

_"And you broke it..'_

_Lightning opened her eyes to find herself lying on a wide open plain. The woman sat up to get a better look at her surrounding. Ahead of her, was a large crystal structure on a pillar._

_'What the...'_

_"Yep, it's been about three years since they've been up there and two since you pulled a disappearing act on us." Said a blond male approaching her from the side._

_"They. What are you talking about. And who are you?" She asked demandingly._

_'You forgot us...'_

_A bright light illuminated from the crystal orb making Lightning cross her arms over her eyes. Suddenly her ears filled with the sound of loud cracking noise. Before she had time to look, the crystal orb broke and shattered into thousands of small fragments. That attached to her skin._

_'What the...'_

_Just then the ground shook then crumbled from under her feet and she fell into a dark abyss._

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><p>Lightning awoke in a cold sweat and to the sound of her cell ringing. She'd been having that dream for the past two weeks now and its really been bothering her. She had tried falling asleep with less stress on her mind but not even that was working. But what bothered her the most was the people that appeared in the dream. Who were they?<p>

Lightning clumsily reached for her phone and answered it.

"Farron speaking."

"Farron get down here immediately! The fugitive has escaped!."

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><p><strong>Well That's chapter one. It's not long but as the story progresses, chapters will be longer. The "No Boundaries" Fanfic, It will be on Hiatus until this story is completed. Sorry I just came up with an idea that will link this story to that one. :D but review please and tell me what you thought. Criticism is welcome.<strong>


	2. Fugitives!

**Disclaimer: I own nothing but my OC characters. All credit to square enix.**

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><p><strong>Chapter 2: Fugitives<strong>

"Dammit!."

Lightning mumbled as she rushed through the corridor and eventually made it to the President's office. The president was just finishing up with the last of his orders with three other soldier's before finally dismissing them to their duties. Lightning walked in the office and stood a few feet away from the desk. "Glad you're here Farron." He said turning his attention from the window to face her. "I need you and the other two to search the city's outskirts while my other men search town."

"Other two sir?" Just before the president had a chance to answer, the door slid open. In walked Sephiroth and Xayne. Lightning mentally grunted then turned back to face her superior. "If you don't mind Sir, I'd prefer going on this mission alone." She asked calmly then looked over her shoulder at the two.

"Well Farron, If this wasn't a serious matter, I would allow it. But with the current circumstances, I cannot allow such a thing." He said keeping his expression serious.

"Sir." Lightning responded then glared at the two behind her.

"Dismissed."

The three exited the office and hopped on the elevator. There was silence for a long while. All that could be heard was the humming of the elevator and the ding when it stopped on a floor. "So," All eyes went to Xayne who dared to make conversation. "You seem ticked Farron. Care to share why?"

Lightning huffed but didn't bother to answer the annoying male. The male smirked, he loved bothering the woman knowing that when he did, he always got under her skin even if she never said it. "Are you angry at the fact that the President paired us all together?"

"..."

"Figured, well get used to it. You're not the best like everyone claims you to-"

"Shut up Xayne!." Sephiroth barked. The silver haired man turned to face the individual. Those stern pools of Mako green, piercing through his soul. "You have no right to speak or say anything towards someone higher in rank then you. I do not recall hearing you have any success in completing any mission solo, if any at all. So I suggest you keep quiet and watch. You might learn something!." Xayne gulped and quickly shut up. His eyes suddenly drifted to the metallic floor of the elevator. Looking the man in those fearful eyes was just too much.

Lightning made a small hint of a snicker as the elevator doors slid open. She wasn't expecting for Sephiroth to say anything, but she was glad someone put that jerk in his place. It wouldn't last, she knew that but, even if it was for a little while it was good enough.

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><p>The trio stood out on the open plain as they contemplated on where they should start first. "Well," Lightning started turning to face her two allies. "We need to split up, staying togethor won't get us far, this guy is on the move so-"<p>

"So we should part in different directions and if one of us are to come across him we'll contact eachother then report back to Headquarters, with the fugitive in hand." Sephiroth finished, glaring at the woman who was giving off the same gesture. Xayne stood in the middle of the two, watching as the tension began to build up. "And you two say I-"

"Shut up!." The two said in unison resulting in the brunet raising his hands in defeat. "I give the orders here, not you!." Lightning stated strictly as she pushed Xayne aside and closed the space between her and the silver haired individual.

Sephiroth looked down at the woman who was just inches shorter with a mocking smirk that only irritated the woman. "Yeah, who put you in charge?" He narrowed his eyes and leaned his face slightly closer to the woman's. "I. Don't. Take. Orders. From. You.." He said then pulled away from the pinkette. "If I come across the fugitive, I'll give you a call." The silver haired male walked off in the eastern direction leaving Xayne and Lightning to make their own decision. "Alright, since he took the east you take the northern areas. I'll search the western and southern. Got it?"

"Yea whatever, this time I'll find the fugitive, and I'll be the hero!. Later Farron." Xayne turned on his heel and took off across the plain like a bat out of hell. Lightning sighed and began walking along the mountain path towards the Wutai area. It was irritating at how everyone in the SOLDIER body was so hell bent on becoming a hero. What happened to just wanting to protect others, honor, and all that other cliché shit they were meant to believe when they entered SOLDIER.

'_Hero..whatever..'_

Lightning swept her pink fringes from her face and cast her eyes upward. Strangely, Xayne's cocky demenor reminded her of someone but she couldn't quite put her finger on it.

"Hey, wait up!." Lightning didn't slow her pace for any reason, she could hear the footsteps behind her become closer and closer. "Hey, would you slow down!."

"I thought I told you to search the northern areas Xayne, why the hell are you following me?" She looked behind her to see the soldier clumsily climbing behind her and occasionally losing his footing on the rocky mountain slope. "Well, I'm more of a person that likes to travel with a partner rather than alone, something wrong with that?"

"Yes!." She suddenly stopped and turned to face the annoying male. "First off, you're not my partner. Second, you'll just get in my way and only slow me down. Like you've done in past missions!." Xayne stumbled back and almost tumbled down the rocky mountain side, but the pinkette grabbed the maladroit male by the wrist before it could happen. "See, perfect example, you're negligent and clumsy." Lightning turned around and continued climbing the mountain side.

The brunet huffed and dusted his clothes. "I-I can get better, with your help!." He suggested, following close behind the female soldier. Lightning was taken aback by his words. First this guy hates her, now he wants her help. "No, I'm not open to being anyone's mentor especially not yours. Besides, you can't stand my guts. Why would you seek help from someone you hate? That makes no sense."

Xayne slowed until he eventually came to a stop. "It's, It's not that I hate you!." The male's words drew her attention, and Lightning stopped for a second time. "Oh? Enlighten me then. What is it exactly?" Lightning never was one to care what others thought about her, but ever since she enlisted, Xayne's hated her. So she was a little curious as to why that was.

"It's just that.." He didn't want to say it. It would make him look like a fool and he'd probably be the laughing stock if anyone ever found out. "Just, don't tell anyone I told you this when I say it alright?"

"..."

He took her silence as a yes and began to speak. "I'm jealous of you Lightning. Everywhere I walk or turn it's, Lightning Farron did this or Lightning Farron did that. You get to bask in all the glory while me and the other soldiers fade in the background. And if it's not you it's Sephiroth. It's not fair."

"I don't bask in anything for your information. You think I care what those people think of me? I'm just doing my job. Lightning stated coolly. "Maybe if you weren't such a reckless idiot, you'd probably get the attention you wanted."

"That's why I want you to help me. Maybe being around you will show me how to be less reckless!."

"No." She picked up her feet and began walking again seeing Wutai coming into view.

"Please Lightning, I wanna get better!." The woman gasped. Why did those words sound so...familiar?

Xayne ran out in front of the woman. Lightning grunted out of irritation. This guy obviously wasn't going to give up until she caved. "Alright! But you have to follow everything I say. Got it?"

Xayne nodded in response. "I will."

"One slip up, and you're-" Lightning looked over the brunet's shoulder to see a figure dashing across the the plain. "Not, a smart fugitive are we?" She drew Blaze Edge in its gunmode, and sprinted down the mountain. "Let's go Xayne!"

Xayne followed suit behind Lightning, finally seeing why she dashed down the mountain so quickly. "It's him!."

"Uh-huh." Three Shin-Ra chopper's zoomed above them, heading in the same direction they were going. "Hm, he looks weak, Xayne cut him off!."

"Got it!." Xayne's speed greatly increased and with ease he caught up with the fugitive. Lightning grabbed hold of both the male's arms and securely held them behind his back while holding her gun to his head. "Make one wrong move and I'll blow your brains out!." She stared up at Xayne and gave him a nod of approvement. In turn the male gave a small grin.

"All of you are the same!." The fugitive spoke with his eyes to the ground. "All you Shin-Ra idiots!." Lightning smacked him in the back of his head with her gun. "Quiet!." But the male continued. "You claim you want to save other's but, you're no better than that low-down dirty president of yours, all you care about is stealing the planets energy source!."

_'Energy source?'_

Lightning's eyes grew wide at the male's words. In a quick motion, she grabbed the male up by the collar."Wh-what did you just say!."

The Shin-Ra choppers made their landing a few feet away from the scene, and out poured ten soldiers.

"What do you mean what did I say, you seem shocked lady or are you just playing dumb?" Lightning's eyes narrowed dangerously at the individual but he didn't flinch. He just smirked finding her anger amusing, which caused the woman to reward him with a swift punch in the face. "Now, tell me what you said!."

Xayne grabbed the woman's shoulder but she just shrugged him off. "Lightning, what's the matter with you? Why are-"

"Quiet!." She retorted. Her anger rising at the male's lack of cooperation.

"That's enough Farron, step away!." A soldier called out to her.

"Shut up!." She yelled staring at the one responsible with those fierce blue eyes of hers. The soldier gulped and cowardly stepped back.

"Why should I.." the fugitive asked smugly. She didn't know why. But the words he spoke, sparked something in her mind. The woman drew Blaze Edge in its gun mode and pulled the trigger on three of the soldier reinforcements.

"Woah, Lightning have you gone fucking crazy!." Xayne yelled as he watched in horror at his partner's strange behavior. The remaining men cocked their guns and aimed them at the pinkette. One soldier began dialing back to headquarters to send in more troops.

"I don't know what's wrong with you but Lightning, you need to relax. Put your weapon down.." Xayne said trying to calm his partner. He reached out and grabbed hold of her arm to lower it but she didn't move. Her gun stayed pointed up at the soldiers.

"Farron one more time we will be forced to repercussions that we won't be proud of. Now listen and-"

_BANG!_

_BANG!_

_BANG!_

The sound of Lightning's weapon bellowed throughout the entire area. Three more soldiers lifeless bodies fell to the ground. Just as she took those shots five soldiers grabbed her. She struggled and tried to free herself from the grasp of the soldiers but was knocked unconscious.

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><p><strong>Midgar- Shin-Ra Inc. Professor Hojo's Laboratory 16:50pm<strong>

"Give me the report.." A middle age man said as he pricked the finger of the patient laying across the table.

"Well Hojo, from what we heard from one of the operatives Xayne, she just lost it." The understudy explained.

"Mmm-hmm.." Hojo hummed as he pulled a glass slide from the drawer beside him and squeezed a few drop of blood from the patient's finger before passing it off to one of his under studies. "Take a look at that and report back to me with the results when you're finished." He said and sent the man on his way. A small crooked smirk shaped his lips as an idea came to mind. "Could it finally be working?" He mumble to himself then stared down at the patient on the table. Was all his hard work finally paying off? Would this project be a successful one after all?

**~xxxxxx~**

"Well done Noir I must say I'm proud to see you're stepping up and deciding to take your given assignments much more seriously." The president explained to the brunet male.

Xayne nodded his head firmly. It wasn't often that he even made it to the president's office to receive praise for anything he'd done. He was always sent to Director Lezard for a briefing but this, this made him proud. "Thank-you Sir. What of the terrorist Sir? What will happen to him?"

"He will be taken care of tomorrow afternoon. With all the charges held against him, he will receive a public execution as an example to show others who try to sabotage my company, what will happen."

"Serves him right sir.." The brunet whispered through clenched teeth.

"But you are dismissed Noir, make sure you stop by Lazard's office before you leave out."

"Sir!" The brunet said then left from the office. Xayne entered the elevator and pushed the button for the 50th floor. The doors shut and the elevator hummed quietly. He crossed his arms and closed his eyes. "Hope Lightning is alright.." He said to himself. It had been almost twenty to thirty-five minutes since they had arrived back here. But he really wondered what it was to make the pinkette react that way. Lightning always kept her cool on any mission. But that little moment she seemed very out of character.

"Wait.." He mumbled then pushed off the wall. It happened after the fugitive mentioned something about an energy source. What energy source?

The elevator dinged and the doors slid open. He should probably pay Lightning a visit after he's done with Lazard and ask a few questions. "Yes, director you wanted to see me?"

**~xxxxxx~**

"Professor Hojo! Sir you must see this come quickly!" The understudy called.

"What is it?" He said as he slowly gaited over to the lab table. The understudy pointed to the microscope. Hojo removed his glasses and looked through the machine at the slide. "Intriguing.." He said as he continued to observe. "The cells are finally taking an effect!." He pulled away from the microscope and rubbed both his hands together. "Wonderful, we must continue with more experimenting, let's get to work."

**~xxxxxx~**

Xayne stepped out of the elevator and on to the fifteenth floor of the Shin-Ra building. All Lazard wanted to do was congratulate him on his hard work and how he should keep up the good work. He huffed. He'd already heard that from the President. What he was really looking for was a promotion to a first class SOLDIER. Catching a terrorist of the company was big. He felt he deserved more than just praise. Stuck as a second class SOLDIER for two years was really bugging him. "This sucks…." He mumbled. He wondered why everyone was making it to first class but him.

He stopped in front of the laboratory doors and began to knock when he saw Sephiroth looking through the glass at what was taking place inside. Out of every soldier in the company Sephiroth was the most intimidating to him, much more intimidating than Lightning. He just had this blank stare that chilled his bones. Yet everyone in the SOLDIER body admired him. Except for Xayne.

"This area is off limits to second and third class SOLDIERs. What are you doing here?" Sephiroth asked without making eye contact with the other.

"What's going on?" He asked ignoring the man's question. Sephiroth's silence prompted the brunet to observe for himself. Inside, he saw Professor Hojo and several others busying themselves with needles and other types of machinery they had hooked up to Lightning's unconscious body.

"What…what are they doing to her?" He asked, horrified by the scene that was taking place before him. Sephiroth shook his head then turned to face the brunet. Xayne pulled his eyes from the scene for a few second then quickly looked at the ground when he came in contact with those unfriendly eyes of the silver-haired man.

"She won't make it…" He said morosely. "She's too weak, just like the other soldier's they tried this little experiment on." He huffed. "It'll appear as if it was successful at first but as time passes. It will show. Be it degradation or her becoming some monstrosity…." He turned back to the window and as the experimentation continued. "Only the strongest of soldiers survive, and Lightning does not fall in that category."

"She's not weak!." Xayne spoke up in Lightning's defense. "So what if she doesn't have as much stamina as you, that doesn't mean she's weak!." He peered through the window again. For as long as he's been in SOLDIER he's never seen anything like this, sure he's heard about it but he didn't think it was this bad. "Lightning will be fine!." He said only hoping that was true. "You may be a hero or the strongest soldier in the eyes of others but to me, you're nothing…"

Sephiroth huffed then turned away, ignoring the boy's words for they did not affect him in any way. "You're blinded by ignorance boy, but you'll learn the truth eventually…" The silver-haired man said and walked off in the opposite direction.

Xayne took a deep breath and placed his hand over his racing heart. He just stood up to Sephiroth and survived. He wiped the small sweat drop from his eyebrow continued watching what was going on inside the lab, hoping Lightning would make it out alive.

* * *

><p><strong>Junon Harbor- 15:15pm<strong>

The day of the terrorist's execution had rolled around. Over two-hundred SOLDIER operatives lined the grounds of Junon waiting for the President's arrival to announce the execution of Terrorist. He sat tied to a chair on a metal platform surrounded by ten operatives. His execution was a public one and was being aired on every channel in Gaia.

Xayne stood amongst the several soldiers on the ground waiting for the scene to be done and over with. From what he heard from other operatives is that the terrorist was going to be shot to be shot ten times not in unison but one at a time. He shuttered. That would be a very gruesome sight. There were many rumors about how the terrorist would be handled but from the looks of it. Being shot to death looked like the winner.

"You look shaken.."

The brunet looked over his shoulder and there, he saw Lightning, alive and in one piece. He was very relieved. "You're…you're okay." He said awkwardly.

"Uh-huh…what you thought otherwise?" She asked.

He shook his head right away and smirked. "Nah, I knew you'd come through." He said strangely, remembering what Sephiroth had said the day before. Was she really alright? She looked like she was. What was degradation? Whatever it was it didn't seem like it was happening to her. She looked healthy and her eyes were that vibrant blue color like usual. She showed no signs of turning into a monster either. Lightning was Lightning.

He turned and looked up at the fugitive on the platform. He looked pretty beat up. Some of the soldiers must have really knocked him around last night, seemed like he would pass out any second. Not even the smallest ounce of fear was showing in the male's eyes. He looked more proud than anything else. Who could act so honorably when they were about to die…? Xayne took a moment to picture himself in the fugitives position, all those soldiers just staring at him waiting for him to be killed, ten soldiers pointing their guns in his face. That would be a horrible experience, a terrifying one.

"Hey, Lightning…?

She blinked and rolled her eyes to the side. "What?"

"He did wrong, but does he really deserve to die like this…? I mean maybe he did it for a reason. No one would just attack a company for no given reason." He clenched his fist at his side as a horrid memory flowed back to the front of his mind. "The Shin-Ra are responsible for making the lives of many very miserable right? Maybe that was his case.."

"Doesn't matter his reason Xayne." She explained. "He did wrong and now he has to pay the horrible consequences that come with it." She placed a hand on his shoulder after noticing a change in his body language he seemed tense and angry about something but didn't bother to ask. "But he's not dying today…" She whispered to the brunet, catching his attention. Xayne looked to catch the woman's eyes but she looked away.

"What are you talking about Lightning…..?"

She didn't answer.

"Lightning!." He called again.

"Just have my back and watch me closely." She whispered.

He nodded, and could only wonder what the woman was up to.

A helicopter soon made an appearance over Junon and made a slow landing on to the helicopter pad. The wind twirled and blew across the faces of the soldiers that stood on the ground below as the helicopter's propeller came to a stop. The doors slid open and out stepped the president guarded by four operatives including Sephiroth.

The soldiers stepped back and cleared a path for the president to get to the platform next to the terrorist. He dismissed the soldier's and they joined the others on the ground. "This afternoon." The president started loudly. "I gather you all here today to bare witness to what happens to those that wish to go against my company." He held his arm out to the man strapped in the chair beside him. "This young man here was once a SOLDIER in my company. What turned him against me, I do not know. But he so boldly tried his best to destroy this company I worked so hard to build, and in the end he failed."

"I do my best to make this world a better place to live in but what do I receive in return?" He glared at the fugitive who only smirked. "A terrorist." He said angrily. "So.."

"Is all of this really necessary?" Xayne commented hoping for a response from Lightning. He looked to his side and the woman was nowhere in sight. "Shit!." She'd told him to watch her and he didn't. "Lightning!." He whispered as he walked through the crowd to find the woman. When he spotted her he stopped. "What the how did she..!?" The pinkette somehow found her way up on the platform behind the terrorist and the ten soldiers. "What is she doing…?" Lightning hit one soldier in the head with the back of her weapon then shot down the others with her gun.

"What is going on here!?" The President shouted out of pure shock. Lightning quickly untied the fugitive from the chair and pushed him towards Xayne in the crowd. "Quick let's go!."

"Stop them!" The president shouted.

"The hell did you do that for Lightning!?" Xayne asked as they ran away from the soldiers that were following close behind them. "There is no way that we are going to outrun all of these soldiers."

"Watch me.."

Lightning pulled back on the weapons trigger and unleashed a storm of bullets at the wall of men coming at them. She then switched Blaze Edge into sword mode and charged full force at the battalion of soldiers slashing and cutting through the men, killing or injuring whoever was in her way.

The soldiers retaliated and shot at the oncoming pinkette, in which Lightning dodged so easily with a few side steps and back flips. Five men attempted to attack her from behind but she performed a swift blitz attack, jumped back a few steps and followed it up with a spell of Thundaga.

"Allow me!."

The terrorist sprinted towards the wall of men while pulling his sword back over his shoulder readying to attack. "You may wanna get back lady, unless you want to be incinerated."

With no argument, Lightning stepped out of range of the soldiers. As the terrorist neared, a bright red glow channeled within his weapon. He swung the sword vertically over his shoulder creating a large bright wave of energy that killed every soldier in its path. When the wave dispersed, the male glanced up at the sky to see the helicopter that the president arrived in fleeing from the battle scene, leaving behind their fallen men.

The male then turned to both Xayne and Lightning with a perplexed look upon his face. "Why'd you save me…?"

The pinkette switched her weapon back to gunmode and placed it back in the sheathe. Her back remained turned to the suspicious man, while Xayne stared appalled at the men her and the other male just killed. "What you said, yesterday…about an energy source."

The male stared at the woman, confused at the situation that just took place. "What the hell, you're crazy lady. All that just for something I said said? Or maybe you were just waiting for a good reason to take those men out so you can release yourself from the Shin-Ra. But then again, you're asking me for information so you must not know anything." He assumed.

"Well lady you're not fooling me!. Why would you work for a company you don't know shit about!." The man charged in at the woman ready to attack, but Xayne stopped him by performing a quick sweep kick to his feet and kicked him square in the center of his chest and caused his body to catapult back.

The male pulled himself off the ground and used his sword to support his weight while trying to regain his stability. Breathing raggedly, he held his hand over the area where Xayne had kicked him, as he tried to catch his breath from having it so suddenly knocked out of him. Lightning's eyes averted from the corpses and back to the male. She had no plans on helping this man He could die for all she cared. He was an enemy of the state after all, and all she wanted was information.

The soldier searched inside of the onyx pouch on her left thigh until she found what her hand was searching for and tossed it in his direction. "Here, take this. You're gonna need it."

A gloved hand extended forward and caught the object that was tossed to him by the young pink haired woman though he was very skeptical. What was it? An elixir? Was it a friendly gesture or was she just doing this all out of pity? The young male grits his teeth in frustration turning his glowing hues towards the female that stood near. "What the hell, I never said I needed you hel-"

He grunted slightly in pain from wounds he received from the beating he took the night before. In this condition he was no match for his next strike. He sat back down looking back at the elixir that she had given him, swallowing his pride he simply decided to ingest the given medicine and allowed it to perform its miracle, immediately being healed.

Standing up straight he turned towards her again. "Look, don't let this small moment fool you, I didn't really need help from you or anything but I guess it doesn't hurt to show a little gratitude so...Uhm, thanks."

Lightning only nodded in response. There was an awkward silence between the two. The male was practically shooting daggers at the pinkette with his eyes. "Lightning, have you forgotten our mission here, he's the enemy!." Xayne said taking his sword from his back. "But if you don't want to kill this traitor, then let me."

"No, Xayne."

The brunet lowered his weapon and angrily raised his fist. "Arrgh, why!"

She couldn't explain but for some unknown reason, she couldn't help but feel she was supposed to do something. "I don't know..."

"Just like you don't know why you shot those men yesterday, what the hell is wrong with you!?" She couldn't answer that either. Her odd behavior started the day those strange flashes came to her. "Don't worry about it!."

The fugitive had his arms crossed over his chest as he gazed at her and the male beside her. Now being alone, he took the time to analyze them by looks and clothing once more. They definitely were affiliated with Shin-Ra, he took notice to this when the soldiers kept addressing her as "Farron" the day before. But a female operative? Since when did they start recruiting woman? Still neither one could be trusted. And why would she help him? Could it really be over what he said? It wasn't making sense.

"Hey lady,"

He called rudely causing Lightning to turn and glare at him. "What's your name anyway? Figured I should at least know the name of the person who helped me out." He asked now placing both his hands behind his head.

Lightning scowled and a low "hmph" escaped her lips as she turned her back to the male and avoided his question by asking him one of her own. "Same thing I was going to ask you." She lashed back coldly. "So, what was that you said about that energy source?" She asked again.

The male's arms fell back to his side and his glowing hues turned up towards the taller woman. "I have no idea what you're talking about." He answered sarcastically.

Lightning held a perplexed expression at the males answer. Instantly she became irritated. "Don't play stupid with me!."

A look of amusement showed across the males face. "Who's playing stupid, Besides why would I tell you, an affiliate of the company I hate, about a source that they are going after?"

Lightning swiftly unsheathed Blaze Edge leapt back a few steps and pointed it at him. "Because, I know you're not that damned stupid. I have something on you and if you want to stay out of the grasp of the Shin-Ra, I suggest you start cooperating."

He sighed and threw his hands up in defeat. "Alright, but just because we've come to an agreement doesn't mean I have to trust you!."

Lightning sighed and rubbed the side of her temple, trying to relieve herself from the frustration that built up in just those few seconds. She exhaled deeply as she glanced up towards the sky and began to speak. "Fine by me, I wasn't looking for you to trust me. As a matter of fact whatever your situation with Shin-Ra is, I don't care. I ju-"

She was cut off mid-sentence when a chopper zoomed over their heads and distracted her. She snapped her eyes up at the sky, and her hand tensed around her weapon's hilt. The Chopper seemed to cruise right by not seeing either of them. "We'd better get moving before they decide to double back."

"Names Oraian Eclipse." The terrorist blurted out so suddenly.

"Yeah, That's nice, but this is no time for introductions!." Xayne commented.

"Yea let's move before they catch us."

"_Us!_ you're the one they want!." Xayne cut in, a hint of anger showing in his voice.

"No Xayne, we're just as much a target now as he is." Lightning disagreed.

"Exactly.." Oraian said firmly. "This became your problem just as much as mine when you two decided to take up arms against the Shin-Ra. Now we need to get out of here before they reach their headquarters in Midgar."

Xayne angrily raised his sword and pressed its sharp edge against the male's jugular area. "Talk, say anything untruthful or stupid and I will not hesitate to kill you!."

Xayne pressed harder against Oraian's neck but he showed no sign of fear. He snickered and gave a mocking smirk. Xayne applied more pressure to the male's neck cutting the skin but not enough to kill him. "Alright, Alright!." he shouted finally giving in to the brunet. "I'll tell you whatever you want to know when we get to Kalm alright!." Xayne released his blade from his neck and returned it to his back. Oraian gasped and coughed, a hand held over the area the blade had cut him.

"Geez man you didn't have to-"

"It's Xayne."

He raised an eyebrow."What?"

"My name!." He responded angrily. "And this is Lightning. Now, lead the way."

* * *

><p><em>Meanwhile...<em>

**Midgar- Shin-Ra Headquarters 18:00pm**

A few soldiers made it back to HQ, and took their time but eventually arrived at the President's office. "M-mr. President S-sir, I'm h-here to report our failure to capture the fugitives s-sir" The soldier said, stammering over all of his words out of fear.

The man turned in his seat, as smoked one of his cigars and linked both his fingers hands with each other. "I see, it all just means we have to increase our numbers and overwhelm him-"

"Permission to speak sir," The man nodded. "The bad news d-doesn't stop there, S-see we could of had him if Lightning Farron and Xayne Noir didn't continue to interfere, they killed several o-of our men Sir."

The soldier spoke the fear rising in his shaky voice. The man's hand tightened into a fist upon hearing this information. The very woman he put faith into, had turned on him betrayed him for that traitor!. "You are dismissed." He then made another order to send out another sky fleet to hunt the trio down.


	3. Gods Of The Planet

**I own nothing but my OC characters. Everything else belongs to square enix.**

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 3: Gods of The Planet.<strong>

_It exists...I'm sure of it. After all my searching I think this one is right.." Lightning gazed over at the frozen structure again and thought about her lost friends maybe it was real and if it is then maybe, just maybe there was hope for her friends._

_He noded then shrugged a bit. His hand reached out and rested on top of her shoulder gently. "So what are you Saying you're going to go and try to obtain this.."said" energy..thats crazy Light!."_

Lightning, Xayne and Oraian entered the town's tavern and the first smell that went across the woman's nose was the scent of cigerettes and cigars. The mixed smells made her stomache churn not to mention the stench of strong alcohol and beer lingering in the air. The trio took a seat at one of the many open tables in the back of the tavern. She would have preferred a more private area to have this dicussion knowing that their lives were now on the line. But he had to go with a public location. And them sitting in the back made them look even more suspicious. Lightning grunted mentally and sat down in the chair across from Oraian, while Xayne leaned against the back wall. Oraian seemed rather calm in this situation like he didn't give a care in the world. "Beer please!" He yelled raising an arm in the air. Lightning wasn't scared. No, a little on edge yes, considering they didn't have a plan for this situation. She huffed and crossed her arms and legs and turned her head to the window.

"Start talking.." her voice was demanding and stern as usual but it still never effected Oraian like it did others. Instead he found her cold demeanor to be quite interesting. He ran his fingers through his silky two-toned colored hair while tapping his finger gently against his bottom lip with the other hand. "Hm, where do I start..?" A waiter came by and place a mug of beer down in front of him then walked away. Oraian wrapped his fingers around the mug's handle and pulled the glass to his lips to drink.

"It lies beneath the surface, " He started as he placed the beer mug back on the table top. "It's the planet's source of life or its blood. But better known as the Lifestream. Well, that's what people refer to it as anyway. The river that circles our planet, giving life to the world and everything in it. It contains memories, emotions, and knowledge of all those who lived on it. It's also been beleived that portions from the Lifestream can be used to create new life. But sadly, thanks to a certain greedy company known as Shin-Ra Inc., the planet's energy is running low. That company extracts and processes it into Mako, to power their establishment and condense it into what we know is," He reaches into his pocket and places a small, glowing blue sphere on the table. "Materia."

They use it for other inhuman reasons as well." His hand raised from the tables surface and pointed to his strange glowing hues. "In the labs, the company's top scientist, Professor Hojo, performs experiments on every First Class SOLDIER in hopes of transforming them into super SOLDIERS. He does this by injecting them with Mako and Jenova cells. If the process is successful, then you'd end up with eyes like mine. Not every soldier returns from the labs alive, or survives long enough to undergo another process because their bodies couldn't take it. Even worse some loose their minds and go off the edge. Or they turn into monsters. I'm actually suprised you haven't been injected yet."

Lightning shook her head and shifted her icy blue gaze from the window and focused it on him. He was incorrect about her not being experimented on by Professor Hojo, when in fact she was several times agaisnt her will. But she didn't feel the need to share that with him. Strangely, the cells and Mako had no type of effect on her. This caused Hojo to call her "The Special One." The Professor had come up with some inane theory that the Mako and cells injected into her blood stream has been absorbed by her cells and is lying dormant inside her. and some other blah blah scientific bullshit she didn't care to hear. She rested her elbows on the table and clenched her hand into a fist. "If only you knew.."She answered dryly. "So, how do you get-"

"We inturrupt this program to bring you this breaking news from Shin-Ra Inc. Lightning, Xayne and Oraian immediately turned their attention up to one of the four television screens in the tavern.

"It has been stated that the Shin-Ra terrorist has been sighted again. Only this time with two accomplices, one of the company's top ranking soldiers, Lightning Farron, and second class, Xayne Nior. The three were last seen in the area's between Kalm and Midgar. The perpetrators have been considered to be armed and dangerous! These are the photos of the deadly trio." A photo of Oraian, Lightning, and Xayne were breifly shown on the screen then switched back to the news reporter. "Soldiers have been sent to do heavy patroling of the area until the fugitives are found. If any are to recongnize these two please contact, 1-800-6SHINRA or inform your nearest uniformed soldier. I am Yuna reporting live from Midgar.

"Great so we are enemies now too!." Xayne glared at the male who seemed to care less about the news report. "What the hell is the matter with you!"

"Were famous!." The light-hearted male laughed and took a gulp from his beer mug then placed it back down on the table. He found the media quite interesting ecspecially when it came to the stories on him.

He felt a rush through his body he felt important and it boosted his ego for one. "Isn't it obvious that no one cares? If they did, I would have been caught long ago. What the media fails to understand is that no one gives a shit about Shin-Ra they want to see it go down just as bad as I do, anyway back to my sto-"

Lightning leaned over the table and grabbed the male up by his collar. "Would you be serious for once!."

"Geez, would you stop being so uptight. I've never seen a soldier so on the edge." Now would you let me go, you're making people stare at us!."

"I'm not on edge!." The pinkette screamed causing everyone in the tavern to look their way. Oraian tried to quiet the woman to draw the attention away from them.

"Lightning would you lower your voice. people are watching us and I must say there are warrants out for my, well our arrest so quiet down."

She slammed his back against the chair. "Don't tell me what to do!." She yelled causing more attention to be drawn to them. "Dammit, you want my help don't you? Well keep this up and you won't have to worry about that because we'll all be locked up!."

Lightning sighed softly and released him from her grasp. He was right, for some unexplainable reason she has been on edge frequently and something like this had never happened before. Even in life threatening situations she would always remain calm. What was wrong with her?

"So, you never explained to me why your after the planet's power source."

"Do I have to? It's really none of you business, besides you don't trust me and I sure as hell don't trust you, so why would tell you!"

Oraian reached for his beer mug, chugged down the rest of its contents and placed the mug back upon the table. "You have a point. So if you don't wish to tell me then that's fine but know-"

"Hey guys," Xayne interrupted. which one of you have an escape plan?" Xayne asked, starring outside the window at the soldiers gathered around the Tavern."Because, we have company."

Lightning pushed passed Xayne where she saw the groups of elite, but stubborn Shin-Ra soldiers, waiting for them to come out and surrender themselves. "Is this, is this really suppose to scare us?"

"No." Xayne answered and pointed to a large machine adjacent from the building. "Th-that is..."

A missile shot from the cannon and crashed through the window, breaking and shattering the glass into a million pieces. Xanyne, Lightning and Oraian, all ducked down under the table as the missile exited through the back of tavern and exploded just seconds after.

The people in the tavern came running out in a full panic. The Shin-Ra shot down all came out.

"Alright, now things just got interesting!." Oraian bounced up from under the table and ran towards the giant hole in the wall, made by the missile. "I'll be a distraction. You two head for sector Five. There is a rebel group there by the name of AVALANCHE. Just tell them you know Oraian and you shouldn't have any trouble, now get going!."

"Like hell!." Lightning barked walking to the male's side. "I'll be the distraction. Xayne, go with him and keep a close eye." She ordered drawing blaze edge.

"But Lightning, there is no way you're gonna be able to to take on all of those soldiers by yourself!. I'm staying and fighting with-"

"I told you to leave!." She lashed back in a cold manner. Making the brunet shiver slightly. "I'll catch up with you two later, anyone get in your way. Kill them. I'm not telling you. That's an order got it!."

Xayne nodded. "Right. Oraian, lead the way."

**~xxxxxx~**

"Right..." Lightning mumbled to herself as she watched the helicopters and the soldiers surround her. "Surrender, and drop your weaopn!." Lightning smirked and shifted her position into a battle ready stance. The soldiers cocked their guns readying for fire. "Let's go."

The soldiers all shot their guns in unison but Lightning manuvered her body in such a way, she managed to dodged every last one of them. She flipped back and kicked one of soldier in the stomach, the impact from the blow sending the soldier flying into a nearby wall. She beckoned for the rest to come, and like the stubborn idiots they were, they did.

She ran forth and slashed at one of the armed men's leg causing him to drop to his knees. The man rolled about the ground in much pain and Lightning put an end to his suffering by thrusting her blade through his chest. More and more reinforcements came flowing in.

"Dammit!."

She cursed. At this rate, she wasn't getting anywhere. She swiftly snatched her sword from the dead corpse and turned around to see three soldiers rushing in at her from the left. This was becoming very irksome and boring since it was the same patteren everytime. Lightning waited until the idiots was close enough in range before performing a spin attack that sent them all into the walls and knocking them unconscious.

She took several deep breaths and looked up as more back up rained down from the skies. "Persistent..."

She flew towards the soldiers, slashing at them. With each swing, the soldiers were pushed back to the point they had to defend themselves.

She jumped into the air and fired several bullets. Cries of the men rang in her ears as her bullets pierced through, either their chest or the side of their head. Lightning stood back to her full height and stared darkly at what she hoped to be the last of the soldiers.

She could feel herself becoming fatigued, and weary. Her vision slowly started going black but she had to keep on fighting.

Tiredly, she ran towards the remaining soldiers but fell moments after. This wasn't good. Nor was this like her. She forced herself off the ground and quickly casted a spell of Firaga around them, Giving them no time to attack. Lightning stood to her feet and looked around at the carnage.

"Bravo Lightning.." Said woman snapped her head over her shoulder to see her silver haired rival slowly approaching. Lightning pushed off her blade and held her position, despite how weary she felt. "What do you want Sephiroth, coming to try and stop me as well?"

"Try to stop you?" He said with much emphasism on the entire sentence. He casted his eyes down to the ground, a hint of malicious laughter passing over his lips. "I'll be the one to kill you." He replied point the long katana out at the pink-haired woman. "Now, there is two ways we can do this. The easy way; You surrender. Or the hard way; You refuse and die. Your choice, choose wisely."

"I don't want to fight you Sephiroth, just get out of my way!."

"Surrender and you won't have to."

Lightning hesitated. She knew she didn't have the strength right now to go up against Sephiroth but giving in was weak and beneath her. She tensed her hand aronund her weapon and stood in her battle ready position. "Guess I choose the hard way."

Sephiroth shook his head in disappointment at the woman's careless decision. But if that's what she wanted then he would give it to her. "Never thought I'd be responsible for the death of a companion but, if this is what you want, so be it!."

* * *

><p>"Well, guess I'm home.." Xayne looked around at his hometown and the people who still lived there. Familiar faces mixed with the sight of new ones. The same old buildings lined the streets, some trash here and there. Abandoned houses. Kids were running around playing tag or being bullied. He laughed a little to himself. "This place hasn't changed a bit."<p>

"You use to live in this junk heap?" Oraian asked, slightly offending the male with his words. "It's not a junk heap! not everyone had it good like other's you know." He walked over to the abandoned house he raised himself in, with the help of some others. "You know nothing."

"Geez sorry!." He placed his hands behind his head and turned in the direction their destination was located. look we have to get to AVALANCHE hideout, we're almost there, let's go."

"Before I go any further, I have a question for you fugitive!." Xayne slowly circle the careless individual observing him carefully and closely. "I think you're bluffing, but for your sake you better not be. Can you really help Lightning or are you just pulling her leg!."

"Oh keep your shirt on hothead! You'll find out everything you need when we get to the hideout. Now, let me ask you a question. What's Lightning need with the lifestream huh?" He folded his arms and wrapped his index finger and thumb around the base of his chin. "It's all very baffling, since she's so confidential with her information. How exactly do I know I can trust her?"

"Tch! Do you honestly think she'd tell me? Even if she did, why would I tell some sketchy fugitive!"

"Ouch, this is the type of treatment I get for helping someone out?"

"Help us! You dragged us into this crap!"

"Hey, your short-tempered friend is the one that pulled the trigger, you wanna point fingers I suggest you start with her."

"You know," Xayne reached into his pocket and searched around for his phone. When his hand found the object, he pulled it out and flipped the device open. "I have Shin-Ra on speed dial so-"

"Oh geez alright alright! Damn, I'll shut up."

"Thought so." He slipped phone in his pocket and turned in the direction they had come from. "You know, I'm a little worried about Lightning. That was a heavy amount of soldiers you know."

"Yep." Oraian commented and gave his shoulders a shrug. "And its a good thing the both of us escaped when we did. She's probably long dead by now."

"And if she's dead, I'm gonna kill you too!." He said through gritted teeth. "We are going back for her!." He grabbed Oraian by his collar not giving him the chance to even protest and rushed back towards the grassy plains.

**~xxxxxx~**

Lightning was thrown back and violently slid across the jade green grass, Her sword was knocked from her grasp upon the unexpected swing from Sephiroth. She reached up and touched her forehead when she felt warm liquid streaming down the side of her face. She bought her fingers in front of her eyes to see they were covered in crimson liquid, her blood. Lightning shook her head and blinked twice attempting to stop the throbbing pain in her head and clear up her blurred vision. Lightning slowly picked herself up from the ground, stumbling back as she tried to regain her composure only to collape back to the ground. "Dammit.." She was going, her vision was so damn jacked up and blotted with dark spots she could hardly make out where Sepiroth was standing.

"Finished already, I expected better from you." His broad and cold voice caught Lightning's attention. Sephiroth's eyes glared at the woman, studying her every move. He knew that she wasn't going to pull through the rest of the fight, but she wouldn't stay down, she put her pride before her own life. "You can barely keep your balance, yet you still wish to fight me."

Lightning could no longer feel her legs, standing was almost impossible to do at this point. Sephiroth was winning, and he knew it, judging by that sly smirk he wore. He knew she was reaching her limit. Never taking her eyes off the man, she crawled on her elbows over to where her sword was located and reached to retreive it. She wedged her sword into the ground and used it to stand up.

Lightning took a few deep breaths and held her sword out in front of her. Sephiroth nodded, a smirk playing across his pale lips and in just a few seconds the silver haired male clashed swords with the woman. Lightning struggled to keep balance.

Sephiroth laughed as he applied more pressure against his blade, making Lightning's arms suddenly start to quake. "Tenacious one, aren't you?" Lightning grunted a bit as the man pushed down even harder on his sword. She could feel her body reaching its breaking point but she wouldn't allow herself to loose. Not to him.

Bored, Sephiroth pushed down on Lightning's weapon with the rest of his strength then swept his leg from the ground and connected it with her stomach. Lightning gasped and her eyes grew wide as she collapsed to the ground. She coughed harshly, spitting up blood as she did so.

Whatever dignity she had earlier was gone. she was done, and she finally excepted that. Dragging this battle out any longer was pointless. Sephiroth was going to win anyway. He always does. She knew that.

As Sephiroth raised his sword, She slowly closed her eyes waiting to be impaled by his sword but, she felt nothing. Nothing happened. Lightning opened her eyes to see the sword just inches away from her chest. She snarled and shot a glare at him. "What's stopping you? Kill me!."

Sephiroth lowered his blade back to his side and laughed, earning an angered glare from the woman.

"We'll meet again. And I expect a better challenge." With that being said, Sephiroth threw the woman an elixir and walked off.

"Playing games...with me...you bastard!." Lightning wanted so badly to get up and chase after the man but, with her current injuries, that was impossible. "Get back...here...get back here..." She coughed violently and her breath suddenly hitched and she blacked out.

**~xxxxxx~**

_"Wake up..."_

_A soft voice echoed in Lightning's ears. Her eyes slowly fluttered open to a blackend sky. Confused, she sat up to get a better look at her surroundings. It was dark with small bands of green white lights flowing around her. Then a long ominous crystal path starting from her feet and streached on threw the darkness for who know's how long._

_"Where the hell am I...?" She mumbled. What the hell was this place? Did she die? Was this some form of hell? "Sephiroth!" She called her voice seemed to echo like she was in some large empty room, but there was no answer. But far off in the distance she saw a figure. A figure...that wasn't there a few seconds ago. The figure waved an arm in the air, almost like it was beckoning Lightning to come then turned and ran off._

_"Follow..."_

_There was that voice again, the same voice she heard when she woke up. Lightning was hesitant. If this was anyone else that was in this situation, without a doubt they would be scared. But not Lightning Farron._

_Cautiously, she took a step forward, with every step she could hear the light crunching of the crystal shards beneath her feet. As she continued to walk she stayed alert and kept a close eye on her surroundings. The bands of white green light seemed to form images of what seemed to be her along side a few others. A majority was them fighting soldiers and other dangerous monsters._

_A flash and she was on some dilapidated bridge overlooking a large crystal structure. "What the..."_

_"I'll get the two of you back, I promise.."Quickly, Lightning glanced to her side to see herself staring off at the giant crystal orb._

_'The hell...?'_

_How could she be looking at herself when she was standing right there..and what was this promise? Who was she talking to..._

_"There you are!" A blond haired male strolled right by her and directly over to the other Lightning. He stopped by her side and also glanced up at the crystal orb. "You're hardly around anymore Light.." She heard him mumble._

_'This vision again...'_

_"Come..."_

_Lightning turned around and that shadowy figure was present again off in the distance. "Hey!" Lightning springer off after the figure and everything reverted back to the darkened area with green white bands of energy flowling about, only something was different this time. A faint light was visible at the end of the darkness. A way out? Lightning sprinted as fast as she could across the crystalline path. She could see the light growing brighter and brighter but it was drawing further away from her until.._

_"Not quite yet..." That voice whispered._

_"What?"_

_Crack Crack Craaaaaaaaack!_

_"What the.." Lightning stared down at her feet to see three crack lines along the path and they were getting bigger. "Shit!" She turned on her heel ready to take off but before she had the chance to make even the slightest bit of movement the path shattered from beneath her and she began falling into the darkness._

_She'd never been scared before in her life but she was scared now. Lightning looked up as she continued to fall and watched as that Light slowly became swallowed up by the hungry darkness as she sank deeper and deeper into it. "Where the hell am I.." she mumbled quietly, bringing her arms up to wrap around herself tightly. "Someone...help..me..." Whatever piece of sanity she had left was breaking down, slipping away. She squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head from side to side. "WHERE THE HELL AM I!"_

_"You'll see.."_

_"Huh.."_

_There was a small girlish giggle. "Open your eyes Lightning..."_

_She slowly opened her eyes to see that shadowy figure standing in front of her. Behind the figure was the bands of green white light again, forming images of her and those unknown people again. "What is this...what is this place..." The darkness around the figure slowly dissipated to reveal a red head girl with her hair pushed back in pig tails. "Hiya there Lightning!." She said cheerfully._

_"Who the hell are you!" She asked, taking some steps back away from the red-head. "Where am I..."_

_"You know me...you just can't remember, just like you can't remember anything else. And this...this is your subconscious."_

_She followed the girl's arm as she streached it to the far right where she seen figure. Lightning flinched a bit then stood up and walked over to the laying figure. "Me...?"_

_The pig tailed girl happily skipped to the girl side with a big sunshine smile. "Yea, sure looks like it. You've been sleeping for a long time now, don't you think it's time to wake up?"_

_What was she talking about. How could she have been sleeping for so long when she had just seen got done battling Sephiroth.. "That makes no sense...I was just awake."_

_"One part of you was awake but this part of you has been asleep for some time."_

_"You're talking crazy!." Lightning growled suddenly becoming irritated by all of this._

_The girl stood up and gave a small smile as she slowly started to fade away."Just wake up...wake up and everything will come back to you."_

**~xxxxxx~**

"Lightning, Wake up!"

"Come on!"

Lightning's eyes slowly opened enough to see a blurred figure with sliver hair frantically calling her name. She groan then blinked twice and now seen Xayne. And Oraian standing right behind him. "See, all your panicing wasn't even necessary..I told you she was gonna be fine!."

"Shut up you ass. You said she was dead!."

He smirked. "Well I was hoping for that but-"

"Shin-Ra. Speed dial!."

"Shutting up..."

Lightning went to sit up but her body rejected her from doing such and she fell back against the ground rolling around and hissing in pain.

"Damn, those soldiers _kicked_ your _ass_!." Oraian smugly stated emphasizing every word through tiny fits of laughter. "Oh boy!."

Xayne growled at the idiot then knelt down at Lightning's side. He was a little disappointed, knowing that if he was here that she wouldn't have been so badly wounded. "Why didn't you let me stay!." He yelled angrily at the pink haired soldier.

Lightning was silent for a few seconds. She didn't see that one coming especially not from Xayne. "If you would have stayed you probably would have gotten killed."

"No I wouldn't have. You have no faith in me at all do you...you probably would have come out in better condition then what you're in now. You always run into battles solo thinking you can handle it but you can't! Not every battle you fight can be fought alone Lightning."

"Tss!" Lightning couldn't say much of anything. She was too embarressed to think of a word to say but she knew he was right.

"Just," he put a hand on her shoulder and sighed. "Next time, let me help you alright..."

"Right..." She mumbled though she didn't want to.

"Hate to break up you guys little heart to heart thing but, unless you want to get spotted by our enemies, we'd better get a move on."

* * *

><p>"And here we are." Oraian walked up the stairs with Xayne and Lightning behind him, and pushed open the door. "Wait." He threw his arm over the brunet's shoulder and pulled him over in the corner. "Stay quiet, until I introduce you. These guys aren't too keen on Shin-Ra soldiers. The leader may interrogate you, but for your sake, control your temper!. You too Lightning!." He patted him on the shoulder and took a spot at the bar counter.<p>

"Hey Tifa!." Said woman stopped her motion of wiping a damp cloth across the counter top and smiled. "Oraian, glad to see you're okay."

"Yep . Always am." He smirked and ordered a beer off the menu. "Where are the others?"

"Cloud went to run some errands, Zack is down below along with Barret and the others. Who's your friends?"

Oraian spun around in the stool almost forgetting that the two were even present. "Oh right This is Xayne and Lightning." He motioned for them to join him at the counter, but they stubbornly shook their head in refusal. They didn't come there to be buddy buddy with this fugitive or his other friends. Oraian huffed then turned back to Tifa. "Yea, the three of us aren't exactly on friendly terms but they're ex-soldier of Shin-Ra. If you seen the reports then. You know why."

Tifa nodded and gave them a warm smile. "Pleased to meet you Xayne, Lightning."

"Likewise." Xayne respond Lightning only nodded.

A dull humming sound drew Xayne's attention to a corner off in the far right. A square platform rose from the corner with two people standing on it. A tall male with ebony spiked hair and a very muscular dark skinned male who wore a scowl that would probably scare poor little kids away. Xayne gulped and took a few steps back towards the door while Lightning kept her position and just observed. He looked pretty damn intimdating, more intimidating then Lightning, and that was saying something. What rattled Xayne's curiousity even more was the man's right arm. It was...a gun?

"Hey Barret, Zack, how's it going?"

Barret's gaze quickly shifted to the unfamiliar man standing in the corner. Xayne felt his stomach drop to his feet as the man approached him. His eyes widened and he sucked in some air, scared to even take the slightest breath in front of this man. "Who's this riff-raff?" Barret questioned looking the brunet dead in the eyes.

Oraian ran to his side and threw his arm around Xayne's shoulder. "Xayne, he's an ex-soldier he wants to join us."

Xayne was silently cursing the stupid terrorist for even mentioning his affiliation with Shin-Ra. He noticed the man they called Barret's eyes narrow dangerously and gulped. "Shin-Ra huh?" He pushed Oraian to the side and raised his gun arm up at the brunet. Xayne released his breath as he felt the cold steel of the man's arm touch the base of his chin. "You know what I do to Shin-Ra soldiers?"

Xayne was still shaking, too terrified to answer he didn't want to know, fearing that it probably had something to do with his body being filled with a thousand and one steel bullets. The whole bar went silent, with all eyes just watching the current scene taking place.

"Are you deaf?" Lightning spat. "We were soldiers. We aren't any more!."

Barret lowered his gun arm and shoved Xayne into the corner. The tension in the air disappeared as well as Xayne's fear of being shot to death.

He quickly slipped away from Barret and joined Oraian at the counter where Tifa set down a glass of water for him. Oraian smirked and patted Xayne on the shoulder. "See you survived. You looked pretty scared are you alright?" He asked, mocking the male.

Xayne grabbed the glass of water in his shaky hands and took a few quick sips. "Shut the hell up idiot, just because your around your friends don't think I won't dial Shin-Ra in a seconds and rat your smart ass out!." He whispered to the male who seemed to quiet down after the threat.

Xayne smirked in victory and placed the glass back down on the counter. "Thought so..."

"Lemme guess," Barret turned around to see Lightning walking his way, wearing a sullen expression almost equivalent to his own. "You're an ex-soldier too looking to join our group?"

"Yea right." Lightning stated, keeping her gaze locked on the muscle head man. "And why would I join a group of misfits..I'm here for one thing and one thing only, information."

"Ouch, she's a straight forward one I see...alright then Lightning, what do you wanna know?" Zack asked, feeling more then happy to tell what she needed to know.

"Nothin'! We ain't givin' out no information to scum of the Shin-Ra!." Barret shouted.

"Barret give them a chance!." Oraian argured.

"Chance to screw us over, hell no. Shin-Ra's on our ass already and you wanna add two more of them to our group? No!."

"Tch, if I were associated with Shin-Ra, I would have turned you all in already, you are that infamous rebel group AVALANCHE, am I right? I've heard, seen your terrorizations upon that company. So if you wanna take it there and call me Shin-Ra scum, I'll show you just how much of an asshole I can be. What do you say? Wanna try me?"

"Is that s'pose to scare me?" Barret retorted.

"That a challenge?" Lightning smugly asked.

"That'll be puttin' your own ass on the line as well, there's a warrent out for your arrest. Or did you forget?"

"I have ways, I can easily weave my way out of the situation. What's your plan B, public execution?"

"Hey, hey, hey, you two, enough of the hostility. Barret we can't take chances. Let's just tell her what she wants to know." Zack said.

" #&%$*! Fine, fine!."

Lightning sat down at the counter and looked at the spiked hair male. "The Lifestream, how do you obtain its power?"

"It's impossible.." A fire red beast dog commented as he entered the bar. "Such an act became impossible centuries ago. After the four goddesses, Pulse, Lindzei, Cosmos and Etro vanished from this world."

"Explanation!" She demanded.

"Well, if you don't know, our universe is divided into two parts; the mortal realm where we live, and the unseen realm, where the goddesses Etro and Cosmos reside. Eons ago, before man was created, there was a god, Bhunivelze who wanted so bad to take control of this world that he killed his own mother to do so and she was sent to the unseen realm. Nanakai explained.

He looked around him, noticing everyone was tuned in and continued. "But even then, that wasn't enough. With his mother out of the way, the world was cursed to be destroyed. Troubled, Bhunivelze created Pulse to find a gate to the unseen realm since he could not do so himself without giving up control of the mortal world. He then created the other three gods, Lindzei who he tasked with protecting the world, Cosmos who was tasked with keeping the universe balanced, and Etro who was given no powers due to her resemblance to his mother." He said.

After the creation of the four, Bhunivelze put himself into a long crystal sleep. With Lindzei, Cosmos, and Pulse fulfilling the duties given to them by their maker, Etro became distressed due to her lack of power and purpose, and killed herself, disappearing from the mortal realm. Through her death mankind was created but so was another raising threat; Meteor.

Baffled by this, Cosmos searched through both the mortal and the unseen realm but Etro was in neither. The distressed goddess's soul was wandering about in the stream of lost souls; The Lifestream. When Cosmos learned of the Lifestream that Pulse had created and the great power it held, she was able to revive Etro and togethor, the two stopped meteor at the center of the sky above these lands."

Over time, whatever energy was left within Meteor disappeared and it became nothing more then a giant rock in the sky until Lindzei made it into what was once called, Cocoon."

The story was an interesting one and sounded vaguely familiar, but Lightning was becoming impatient. Nothing the beast dog had said was helping her. "Alright, but does any of this have to do with what I am searching for?"

"I was getting to that." Nanakai responded.

"A few decades after Lindzei constructed Cocoon, a war was rising. It was called the War of Trangression, a battle between these lands and Cocoon. To protect these lands, the god Pulse used the energy from the Lifestream to create the Fal'cie, Anima. Upon its creation, the fal'cie began making the inhabitants of Pulse into being's called l'cie. Humans branded with a mark and given physical and magical abilities to destroy Cocoon. When the armies of Pulse realized that they were no match for the armies of Cocoon, Pulse summoned two souls from the Lifestream that would be given the focus to transform into a powerful beast; Ragnarok. The task was given to Oerba Dia Vanille and Oerba Yun Fang."

"Wait, who?" Lightning suddenly interrupted, popping up on her seat at the mentioning of those names. "Oerba Dia Vanille and Oerba Yun Fang." Nanakai repeated.

"Something wrong?" Xayne asked but Lightning shook her head and sat back down and let Nanakai continue his story. The soldier crossed her arms and stared out the window. For the moment, she could hear nothing else but her own thoughts.

_'Vanille...Fang..'_

The war's aftermath was a terrible one for both sides, but the Pulsian lands suffered the most. The land was so badly damaged not even the lifestream was able to heal it. The god Pulse disappeared and the citizens that were left either turned to cie'th or were killed by monsters. However, the two l'cie that failed their given focus, were pitied by the goddess Etro and put into a crystal slumber for 500 years." He further explained.

"That's right.." Lightning said out loud causing all eyes to fall on her. "Then history repeated itself 500 years later.."

"Correct. As for the lifestream and its great power, it was greatly reduced. Etro and Cosmos had seen the destruction and chaos it bought upon the world and sacraficed themselves to seal it away. It's currently in their shrine in the form of materia within the unseen realm. To keep it out of the clutches of mankind."

Lightning nodded. "And how would one get to the unseen realm?"

"Etro's Gate, but it will not open unless the world is in great peril."

Great that wasn't very helpful, if that's what it took then she'd rather not even bother with such a thing. Or maybe, possibly there was another way. There had to be. "Right..guess we'll have to find another way to open it then. Xayne let's go!."

"Think you two goin'!." Barret asked as he waved his fist in the air. Lightning said nothing and exited the bar with Xayne and Oraian at her side. "Hope that was somewhat helpful to you, where to now huh?" He said looking at Lightning who looked a bit distracted. "Hey, you alright?"

Lightning nodded. "Yea, let's just say. I remembered something important..."

"Like what?" Oraian asked.

"None of your business..now, I need to find a way through that gate..and you're gonna help me!."

"Alright alright!" He raised his hands in defense. "I was gonna tag along in the first place...let's face it, you guys need my help anyway!."

"Tch..whatever fugitive...let's go.."

With that, the three set off. Lightning stared up at the sky and smiled a little at a thought.

_'Thanks..Vanille..'_

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Finally got that chapter out the way! And No, that's not the last of AVALANCHE they will continue to make appearances throughout this story. But I hope you enjoyed this chapter.**

**Review :D**


	4. Difficulties

**Disclaimer: I own nothing but my OC characters, everything else belongs to Enix.**

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 4: Difficulties<strong>

**Nibelheim Area- 20:15pm**

"Shut up fugitive how would you know what's there!."

"Last I checked all three of us were fugitives, and I know because in Nibelheim I had a secret hiding spot if you must know!."

"Wow nice, nice you shouldn't have told me that one. You betray us that's the first place I will tell Shin-Ra to look.

"I don't hide in a spot twice idiot!"

"Shut up!"

"You shut up!."

Lightning was paying no attention to the two bickering beside her. The three had settled on going to Nibelheim since Xayne had mentioned something about a mansion that held a lot of information and probably even had a way to open Etro's Gate without throwing the world into a chaotic mess.

"If you two don't shut up I will round house kick the both of you in the head!." Lightning said as she stared up at the sky realizing the sun was setting and night was soon to follow. And like that the two shut up, still giving each other distasteful glares and punches to the arm though. "We rest here." Lightning said. Oraian looked around, familiar with the area they were in and suggested they kept moving. "Were pretty close to Nibelheim though, we get there and we can crash at the town inn."

Lightning shook her head and objected. "Are you forgetting, we are on the run. Going to an inn would just increase our chances of being caught."

He nodded knowing she was right and decided to stick to her plan. The three set up camp within the woodsy area. Oraian had found a spot near a river, claiming that it was his number one hiding spot because of the way the trees were positioned. They served as a canopy of sorts.

"You guys rest up, we've had a long day and I doubt tomorrow will be any better. I'll take watch." Lightning offered as she stood to her feet.

"No problem there, I'm tired anyway good night!." Oraian turned over and almost immediately he was fast asleep. Lightning huffed and rolled her eyes at the irresponsible idiot.

"Why don't you rest Lightning? Let me take watch." Xayne suggested as he walked to the woman's side. It had been a few hours since Lightning had allowed him to tag along and he hasn't done anything to impress her yet, if that was even possible. "I won't screw up I promise!."

Lightning seen the determination in his eyes but still turned him down. She wasn't much of the sleep type and would get bored easily. Doing anything that would require her full focus always kept her occupied.

"You can take the second shift." The glowing determination that gleamed within his jade eyes seemed too had washed away and he frowned. Lightning noticed and quickly turned her eyes elsewhere. It was odd. She raised a hand and placed it upon the male's shoulder. He slowly drew his eyes from the ground but didn't look the woman in the eyes. "Rest, three hours, and the watch shift is yours." She said then turned and began trekking through the woods.

Lightning came to a stop that wasn't very far from their camp area but deep enough in the woods to where there could be anyone lurking around. She pulled out Blaze Edge at her side and leaned her body against the tree, her mind began to wander, mostly about the strangeness of Xayne's behavior. Before her and Xayne were on good terms he had such a rebellious attitude and hated her. Now he's suddenly showing a soft yet desperate side of him. What the hell was up with that?

He was almost like a certain silver haired boy who use to fight along her side. Sad thing about it was she couldn't even remember his name. From his actions all the way to his emotions. He was just like that boy..

The sound of helicopters flying above drew her immediate attention to the sky. There were about six of them alongside some flying mechs. Lightning quickly ducked down behind a tree and waited for the area to be clear. Hiding was definitely something she wasn't proud of doing but it was keeping her alive nonetheless.

Actions like this solely reminded her of a scenario that was almost similar to this, trying so hard to duck her enemies. She thought that those days were over but apparently not. Shin-Ra was just as bad. When the loud sound of the helicopter's propellers died down she popped from the hiding spot. If anything they'd be back to search this area again and she wanted to be the one standing guard when they did.

The bushes behind her started rattling and she swiftly turned around, switching Blaze Edge in its gun mode. Cautiously she approached the rattling bush, finger pushed gently against the gun's trigger. Whoever it was, picked the wrong time to try and sneak her, when they jumped from that bush they'll be eating nothing but a steel bullet. "Come out!."

What transpired next could have been her death if she didn't have such flawless reflexes. Ripping and whistling through the air was a missile that exploded directly over the spot Lightning once stood, throwing dust and debris around.

"So they did see me huh." As the smoke from the previous failed attack upon her cleared up, Emerging from the bush, came a giant mech scorpion. Lightning held her position and stared up at the towering metallic being as it stalked over to her with heavy steps causing the ground to quake as it did so.

The scorpion swiftly did a one eighty turn and swept his tail towards the woman but instead of being hit, Lightning took hold of the things tail and swung herself into the air, aiming her weapon at the thing and releasing several bullets that clanked against the scorpion's steel exterior. She flipped back, wavering her hand she released the spell of Waterga which engulfed the mechanism in a large torrent of water and forcing it back against a tree.

Lightning landed back to the ground with ease. The scorpion was now in critical condition. Its circuits were frying slowly bits of tiny sparks were zapping through what was once a durable steel exterior. And look at that, the tail was detached from its body. With no further movements Lightning loaded her weapon and sighed. This was a letdown. One cast of a spell and these mechs were dead. No type of challenge whatsoever.

She began her walk through the woods again to make sure the other two where alright but suddenly stopped. No time to think, move or react at all, Lightning felt something hard and cold connect with the back of her head then a severe numbing pain surged throughout her entire body.

"AHHHHGHHH!"

It all happened within a second but it felt like a whole five minutes to Lightning. Her body bounced off a nearby tree and rolled back to the ground. Lightning slowly opened her eyes to see the looming threat hovering over her; the scorpion.

**~xxxxx~**

Xayne had drifted off three times and woke back up while waiting for Lightning's return. He glanced over to Oraian and he was still sound asleep. He scoffed. One would think that someone who had a warrant would be wide awake and alert but not this guy. It was like caution didn't apply to him.

"AHHHHGHHH!"

"What the hell!" He quickly stood to his feet as the scream bellowed through the woods. "Lightning.." He murmured. The brunet grabbed his sword that was leaning against a tree stump and dashed off through the dark woods.

Halfway, Xayne came to a sliding stop in front of what seemed to be around twenty soldiers and a war mech. The ex-soldier took hold of his sword's hilt and held it out in front of him, deep breaths followed for a few short seconds then he took off in his enemies direction. First he started by picking off the soldiers since they were the least of the little situation, but the mech was shooting at him at the same time.

'I can use this to my advantage...' He thought. Xayne stuck his sword in the ground and ran three hundred and sixty degrees around the mech as it was shooting. Programmed to destroy its target on the spot the mech would try by all means possible to kill Xayne and whatever was in the line of fire would get it too. After the death of the soldiers, Xayne casted forth Thundara to over run its circuits, then Watera to finish the job.

"Whoo-hoo how do you like me now!."

Xayne shouted in victory as he retrieved his sword and returned it to his back. "Now, back to-"

_BOOM!_

From the right came a bright orange red flash followed by large pieces of debris and the scorpion. Xayne tumbled to the side to avoid being hit as the scorpion slammed against the tree and exploded on impact. As the dust and smoke cleared, Xayne saw Lightning sitting next to a tree clutching her arm. "Lightning!." He called as he ran to her side. "You alright?"

"I thought I told you to stay at the camp, what are you doing here?"

"I heard you scream so I came to find you. On the way I bumped into some of Shin-Ra's lackies. I fought them off and now here I am."

"I didn't scream.." She lied. And stood to her feet, gnawing at the inside of her cheek to keep herself from letting out any pained scream, from when the scorpion shocked the hell out of her. "Look, I'm fine, just go back to camp and make sure that idiot is alright."

"No." He said firmly then grabbed her arm and in turn she flinched."Oraian is fine, if anything he slept through all that noise anyway. They may come back again, then you're hurt. Just sit down and take a breather for once. You run around in poor condition you're just asking for yourself to get killed."

"Fine..." Was all she could say.

Xayne looked at the arm she was clutching. It was bleeding out pretty bad and on top of that it looked like it hurt pretty badly. Yet this woman showed no signs of pain. Did she ever? The brunet grabbed the bottom edge of his shirt and ripped it away. He knelt down to the woman's side and took hold of her arm.

"What, what are you doing!" Lightning asked a little frantic that the male was invading her personal space. The brunet gave no response and just did his best to tend to her wound.

"There.." Xayne gently patted her arm where he tied the makeshift bandage. "It looked like it was hurting so I thought I'd take care of it for you.."

"Thank...you?"

Xayne smirked then stood back against the tree. There was a long awkward silence between the two. Lightning didn't seem to mind the quietness since she was so use to it. Xayne observed the woman closely then wondered just what was going through the distant soldier's mind. She spoke very little of herself. She was also very anti-social.

Back when they use the get paired off with each other to go on missions, which they both hated. Him more than her, she never said anything except the occasional lecture she would give when he would nearly screw things up.

But now they were on the same level as one another well almost. He wasn't giving her a hard time like he used to.

"So Lightning, what was your reason for joining SOLDIER?"

"I'm not a fan of small talk. So can we not?" She mumbled.

Xayne pushed on. "I'd just like to get to know my companion better."

Lightning huffed out of frustration. She hated talking about herself, mostly because she never trusted anyone to give out such detail. "What little you know about me now, is good enough..."

He sighed then looked off in another direction. "I tried."

"I don't know.." Lightning responded.

"Huh?"

"I don't know why I joined. It's foggy. All I remember is waking up in an all-white room then being sent on my first mission. I don't even remember signing up for this. Then again there are a lot of things I don't remember. "

"What about you?" She asked

"What about me?" He asked.

"Why did you enlist? Let me guess, you're another Sephiroth fan?"

"Far from it, I was actually on an espionage mission." He said. His words grabbed Lightning's full attention. She raised an eyebrow, a gesture to tell him to continue.

"Well, I'm originally from Wutai, lost my parents in the war against Shin-Ra when I was eight. After the war I spent my childhood years in the slums of Midgar. Since, I've been hell bent on making Shin-Ra pay for what they did so I enlisted into SOLDIER. My target was and still is the President. Made many attempts but l...was unsuccessful. As you can see, their company is still standing.." He said.

Lightning heard the trace of disappointment in his voice and it almost made her feel sorry for him…._almost._

It seemed Shin-Ra had destroyed a lot of lives and left many scarred and full nothing but grief and hatred for them. It's no wonder they have such a high security, they're number one on everybody's hit list.

"Revenge isn't as great as you think it is Xayne. You get it then what?"

"Satisfactory." He said with a smug smirk.

"Tell me how that works out for you later."

"As if you understand!." He yelled, stomping his foot against the ground.

"You're right I don't but, you remind me of someone." Faint images of that silver haired boy appeared in her head. "He was just like you, fixed on getting revenge on the one that caused him so much pain. But in the end, it didn't go as he planned it to."

"What he died?" He asked.

"I...don't know.." She responded.

He scoffed and tucked his arms behind his head. "Nice fairytale Farron but I'm not throwing my revenge plot to the side no reason!."

"Fine." She stood to her feet despite her aching limbs screaming for her to stay put. But Xayne's stupidity was irritating the hell out of her. "Have it your way."

"That's it?"

"What, you want me to stop you?"

"No, but I thought you'd put up a bigger argument then that!."

"I said what I needed to say. Now it's up to you for the rest."

"Or your just mad because you lost the argument!." Her hand clenched into a fist at her side. She was almost tempted to turn around and give him a nice right hook to his jaw but didn't.

"Far from it. I'm going to check around and make sure there are not anymore soldiers lurking about. Think you can handle this area alone?"

"I was a soldier Lightning, if anything I'm good at being on watch." He said proudly, making the woman roll her eyes.

"Good, I'm counting on you."

**~xxxxxx~**

Ahhh, what a great sleep that was!." Oraian shouted with much enthusiasm as he stood to his feet and stretched his extremities. "Oh-ho-ho!." He looked at his two companions who appeared to be still very tired. Well, not Lightning. "Looking a little rough there Xayne. Were you too scared to sleep last night?"

"No you idiot. If you must know, while your ass was busy in dream land, Lightning and I were fighting off soldiers!."

"Soldiers? I didn't hear anything." He stated as he reached for his sword leaning against the tree stump.

"Cause you were sleep you pompous ass!."

"No time for arguing." Lightning said non-chalantly. "Terrorist, which direction are we going in.?"

"Would it hurt to use my name for once Lightning? I thought we were on _better_ terms. Anyway, we are heading east, just two more miles and we will be in Nibelheim."

"It's times like this I wish we had a chocobo.." Xayne complained.

"Shut up your whining and let's get moving."

* * *

><p><strong>Nibelheim- Day 1: 9:10am<strong>

Lightning stepped into the small town and looked around. Unlike Midgar this place had a more country like feel too it. But at the same time, it gave off a gloomy feeling as well. One would think this town was deserted. There were no people outside, just a lone dog running from house to house barking.

"There!." Xayne pointed to the mansion just across the way. The trio made their way to the steel metal weathered gates that were covered in spider webs and rust then stopped. Lightning tilted her head slightly taking the time to look at the exterior. It looked old run down and ready to collapse any day now. Busted windows, hanging shingles, and wearing paint. It kind of gave off that haunted house feeling.

Lightning pushed open the gate which squeaked loudly as she did then the three stepped in and made their way into the large mansion.

The inside was definitely worse than the outside. The air was thick from years of not dusting. Objects and paper work were scattered about the floor. Lightning knelt down, picking up a piece of paper that was at her feet and started reading over it. "Project V. and the Protomateria experiment?" At the bottom written in red was the word successful. "What is this?" She asked turning the piece of paper to the two guys in front of her.

Xayne took the paper between his fingers then read over it. "Oh..." He passed the piece of paper back to Lightning and began to speak. "About thirty years ago this mansion was used as a study for professor Hojo, Lucretcia Crescent and Hollander when they first started the Jenova Project. That was when Hojo came up with the idea of injecting humans with the extraterrestrial's cells to give them super human powers like Jenova."

"He even did it to his unborn child that Lucretcia was carrying. Project V, Vincent who was in love with Lucretcia at the time and served as a Turk, objected and tried to stop Hojo but in the end he was shot. Hojo took Vincent's body and performed all kinds of experiments on it right in this mansion. Like it stated on that paper, it was successful.

To save his life and keep him from dying, Lucretcia impaled him with the protomateria. When Vincent awoke he found the project on Lucretcia was complete and she was no longer alive. Ashamed by his failure to protect her, Vincent sleeps in a coffin right in the basement of this very mansion allowing his dreams to haunt him as punishment for his failure."

He finished with a small sigh then walked to the dusty mansion stairs. "The basement is where we have to go to get to the study so let's go."

"There seems to be a story behind every damn thing around here I see." Lightning mumbled as she and Oraian followed in suit while Xayne lead the way down to the derelict basement and into the study.

There were shelves and shelves of dusty old books. Lightning reached up on one of the top shelves and pulled one down, opening it and reading through the text. It wasn't long before she tossed it to the side and pulled down another one, doing the same to that one, the next and the next.

"Oh boy this is going to take forever.." Oraian complained, walking over to a large capsule filled with Mako energy.

"You know, it would be nice if you lent us a hand.." Xayne said, pulling a total of six books off the shelf and placed them on the dusty desk behind him.

"And why would I do a thing like that?"

Lightning shut the book she was looking through then tossed it.

_Clack!_

"Ow!." Oraian cried out as the book connected with the side of his head then fell to the floor with a light thud. "Violence isn't the answer you know it will only cause me to be more rebellious towards you."

"Do you want it to be my gunblade next?" Oraian's eyes grew wide. That wouldn't be a pretty sight and by the way she was looking at him she wasn't joking. "Ugh, there is no way the three of us are going to cover this whole library of books. Did I tell you that reading isn't my favorite subject?" He dropped his head back and stared up at the very top shelf and the line of missed matched books on each of them. They went from colors ranging from red to green, orange, brown, and so on. There had to be at least ten books on each, and a total of five hundred in each case. They would be there for who knows how long searching for something that probably wasn't even in there.

This was all a big waste of time and energy for him. He could have been off somewhere wreaking havoc or planning his next attack but no, he was stuck with Soldier Animosity over there and her fucking lapdog._ 'How did I get myself into this mess..'_ He thought to himself as he reached an arm up on a shelf and pulled down a book. This was going to take a while.

* * *

><p><strong>Nibelheim- Shin-Ra Mansion, Day 3: 4:57am<strong>

"Ooooooh..." Oraian groaned and tossed another book in the pile beside him. They had gone through a total of fifty shelves with ten more to go and still haven't found anything pertaining to what they were looking for. He stretched and let out a loud unnecessary yawn then looked around at his two companions.

Xayne had his head resting at the palm of his hand, nodding in and out of sleep every few seconds. Then there was Lightning, of course she was still going but the lack of brightness in her eyes and the dark circles present beneath them, proved she was just as tired as he and Xayne.

Oraian dropped his head against the book case, causing it to shake as he allowed his eyes to flutter shut.

_clack!_

"Shit! dammit Lightning what did I do now?" He shouted, rubbing the top of his head where the book had hit. Lightning sighed and turned her tired eyes up at the male who accused her of something she didn't even do. "What are you going on about now?"

"You threw a book at me!." He whined like a little child while holding out said book.

"No I didn't."

"Yea well whoever did it, that really hurt.." He glanced over at Xayne whose face was planted against the desk, snoring lightly. Oraian huffed then flipped the book over to its front. Unlike the other books he'd come across in the library, this one was different in color, much heavier and the text on it was also funny looking. "The hell..." He curled his fingers around the covers edge and tried to open it but that action was useless. It was like the pages were locked shut. "What a stubborn piece of literature!." He tossed the book against the stone wall and turned his back to continue reading.

_Clink  
>Clink<br>Clin-clink_

"Hmm.." He glanced over his shoulder to see the book he'd thrown earlier was now open on the floor with some kind of luminous glowing orb inside. He quickly scampered over the pile of books, reaching to grab the orb in the process. The orb had some strange text markings engraved into it, as well as some radiant blue symbol flickering in and out. "What is this...materia?" He looked down at the book to discover that it wasn't a book at all. "Hey uhm, Lightning," He called still examining the odd book.

"What is it now Terrorist..." Her words dragged.

"You may wanna take a look at this. I think I found something. Xayne, wake up and come over here!." He walked on the other side of the book case accompanied by a very tired Xayne. "I found this,"He pointed in the direction of the false book on the floor. "In that odd looking book over there." He said then passed it off to her. Lightning took the orb in her hands and looked at it. Whatever dullness was present in her eyes disappeared in a flash. "Good job Terrorist.." She mumbled as she ran her fingers across the embossed text on the cover.

"What the hell are those strange hieroglyphics, can you read it!" He asked flailing his arm up in the air.

"Looks like materia to me.." Xayne commented. "But what is it going to do for us."

Lightning shrugged and tucked the orb into the pouch strapped on her right thigh. "Don't know, but it's better than finding nothing. Let's head back to the AVALNCHE hideout, maybe the dog beast can help us."

"Yea...well it doesn't look like we'll be getting there anytime soon." Xayne commented, slowly raising his hands into the air.

"Dammit..." Lightning mumbled turning her eyes up to see the obstacle in their way. Two Turks and ten soldiers. If anything these guys were more dangerous than the soldiers. They must want their heads pretty bad. Lightning glared then reached behind her, in unison the soldiers raised their guns.

Xayne grabbed her hand and raised it into the air alongside his own. "We are outnumbered Lightning, resisting will only get us killed. Don't do it."

"Don't tell me what to do!." She spat the yanked her arm from his own and pulled BlazeEdge in gun mode. "Shoot her!." As the Bullet storm began, Lightning performed a summersault over the twelve lackies while Xayne and Oraian handled the rest as they escaped from the basement.

Finally reaching the first floor, the trio burst through the front door only to come to a stop under three helicopters overhead, shining there bright lights in their eyes, impairing the three's vision and a hefty amount of soldiers on every side of them.

"We are so fucked..." Xayne said.

"You are under arrest. Drop your weapons and put your hands behind your heads."

Both Xayne and Oraiain did as they were told and dropped their weapons, but Lightning hesitated.

"Lightning..." Xayne whispered through his teeth. "Drop it. We have no chance."

Lightning didn't listen. She refused. She rose her weapon to shoot, but Xayne slapped it from her hand and kicked it in the direction of the soldiers.

Shocked and angry at Xayne's action, Lightning went to lunge and attack him until something clashed with the back of her head. The pink haired soldier felt her consciences wavering as her body fell limp to the ground.

"Take them away..."

Was the last thing she heard before everything went black.

* * *

><p><strong>Midgar- Shin-Ra Headquarters, 7:03am<strong>

Lightning awoke to find she was leaning up against a cool metallic surface. Across from her was a makeshift bed that Oraian seemed to have claimed for himself. She went to raise her hand to her head when she realized that she couldn't move them. Securely tied together behind her back, were her hands. "This is nice.." She mumbled, drawing the attention of her two comrades.

"Ah, you're awake!." Oraian said as if he were surprised that she had waken up in the first place. "That was one nasty hit you took there!."

She nodded then looked over at Xayne who was quietly sitting in a corner off to the right of her. He looked pissed off.

"He hasn't said anything since we arrived here three hours ago.."

"Three hours ago.." She said in much surprise. "You'd think that by the way they were on us they'd gotten rid of us by now. Just what are they going to do to us..?"

"Well right now they are gathering up all our charges." He sat up and sprung off the bed to his feet. "And that's a lot, especially for myself. Depending on how serious our charges are will determine whether or not we get a quiet execution or public one."

"You're definitely calm about it.."

He smirked. "I'm calm about most things, helps me think better. Don't worry your pretty little head, we will get out. Just leave that to me." He finished with a wink then plopped down on the bed.

Lightning shook her head from side to side then chanced another glance at Xayne. Just before she blacked, she remembered the brunet knocking her weapon from her grasp. If anything he was mad at her for going against his word. She slid closer to him and parted her lips to speak. "Xayne listen-"

"You're a hypocrite you know that.." He said in a voice that Lightning never heard him use. Sounded like a mix between anger and something else...disappointment.

He pulled away from her and scooted further into the corner if that were even possible. "You call me reckless, but look what you go and do. What the hell were you thinking!."

She turned her head to the side and stared at the floor. One she was a little embarrassed, lectures weren't something that came her way often. Secondly, she couldn't think of what to say to him. "..."

"Tss, typical you to stay quiet. You could of gotten us all killed being so...stupid and you have nothing to say about that?"

Lightning was still quiet. Why? She couldn't even figure that out. She never got tongue tied so why now? "..."

Xayne carried on. "I tagged along with you hoping that by watching how you handle situations I could better myself. But I see I was wrong, you're just as bad as me, no worse."

"Ouch..." Oraian said adding more salt in the wound.

"Hmph..." Lightning turned her back to the brunet, clenching her fists together through the restraints keeping them held in place. "Well, if you don't like it, leave! It's not like I'm pointing a gun at your head and making you stay. I don't care what the hell you do. Go back to Shin-Ra for all I fucking care! You're just weighing me down and getting in my way. " She yelled out of anger and frustration alone.

Xayne grit his teeth and glared at the woman. One part of him was hurt by her words but another side didn't really care. "If that's how you feel I will. I don't need your help..."

With that being said the two remained silent for the rest of the time they were locked in that looked at both the two but said nothing, too afraid that if he did one of them would lash out at him.

Je sat up against the wall where he kicked one of his shoes off and something metal hit the floor, a pocket knife. He scooted towards the sharp object and scooped it up in his hands with ease. "Yes!" He whispered and began cutting his way out of the ropes binding his hands together.

"Alright guys," He said flinging the cut pieces of rope to the side as he moved to release Lightning. "Leave this one to me, I'll have us out of here in no time!." He said then cut the ropes from Xayne's wrist.

"And how do you expect to do that!" Xayne said standing to his feet and rubbing his wrist where the rope started chaffing.

"Just follow my lead!." He said then gave a wide tooth-grin.

"Tch, skip that!." Xayne mumbled.

The cell door slid open and in walked three soldiers, Xayne dropped to the floor and sweep kicked all three of them. He snatched the gun that one of them were holding and shot all three of them

"What the hell are you doing!" Oraian said, grabbing Xayne by the collar of his uniform and slamming him against the wall.

"Get off me!." Xayne spat then punched Oraian in the face and ran off out the cell. Just then the security alert went off and a red light flashed throughout the Shin-Ra building.

"Lightning we have to get out of here!." He grabbed her arm and exited the cell.

**~xxxxxx~**

_CODE YELLOW!  
>PRISONER ESCAPE!<br>PRISIONER ESCAPE!_

"There he is catch him!"

"Damn you guys are slow! And you call yourself soldiers? More like a sorry excuse for one. Haha!"

Xayne dashed across the base trying to find some sort of escape route so he could get the hell out of there. But first he had to find the president's office. "

The sound of gun shots snatched him from his thoughts and threw him back into reality. Xayne carefully maneuvered his body from right to left and even performed a few back flips to prevent from being hit by the oncoming bullets. "Oh? so now you guys wanna get serious!"

The brunet male pulled the gun he stole earlier in the cell over his shoulder and pointed it at on coming soldiers. "You guys are some sorry ass shooters ya know. " He came to a sliding stop then pivoted on his heel to face his enemies.

"Here, let me give ya a proper demonstration." The male pulled his index finger back against the trigger as the loud sound of his weapon bellowed throughout the entire base. As the bullets left the barrel of the gun, one by one the soldiers fell to the floor. "And that's how it's done!." Xayne bought the barrel to his lips and blew the excess smoke away that was emitting from it. He sighed and leaned up against the wall to catch his breath from all the running. Since there was no sign of any soldiers, it was safe to do so but only for a few minutes. It wouldn't be long before more reinforcements showed up.

"How'd I get in this mess..." He mumbled to himself as he rubbed his index and middle finger against his temple. He turned his eyes to the floor and recalled all the events that lead him up to this point. "Damn...Lightning.." That's right it was her fault everything that had happened all the way up to this point was her fault. Tagging along and trying to help her search for whatever it was she's searching for landed him in this predicament, and now it's hard for him to get out.

She's right maybe he should have stayed with Shin-Ra. At least he wouldn't have had to worry about being on the run constantly. But then again, it was only a matter of time before he would be running from the Shin-Ra. He was a Wutai soldier in disguise. How much longer would that have lasted? And here he was calling Oraian a terrorist when in fact he was himself.

"Hope your ready Mr. President, because I'm coming.." He said, walking towards the elevator that would lead him to the President's office. He pressed the elevator button and the doors slid open and a small ding was heard. Amazing how that noise was still able to be heard even over the wailing sounds of the security system. He stepped in and pressed the fifty fourth floor, and the door slid shut, closing out the annoying sound of the alarm system.

_36  
>37<br>38  
>39...<br>Ding!_

"What the..." The door slid open and in ran three soldiers. "Shoot, should of knew this would happen..

_**Meanwhile, Oraian & Lightning...**_

"Just s-so you kn-know this is not what I had in...in mind for our escape plan.." Oraian said as he ran alongside Lightning through the building's corridors. "If I knew Xayne was going to pull that shit I would have come up with something else."

"Who cares.." Lightning mumbled. "Let's just get the hell out of here!." They turned down the next corridor when something reached out and snatched them both into a corner. Lightning quickly reacted. She turned around and punched the one responsible square in the nose.

"Ah-ouch!."

"When she realized who it was she cringed a bit, feeling a little bad for her action. "Zack, what the hell are you doing here?"

"Saving you two!." The the ebony haired male groaned holding his nose that was now gushing blood all over his hands. "Dammit, that really hurt you know. Anyway, come on, Tifa and Yuffie are in there." He extended his arm and pointed to the vent. "That's where we came in from. We'll meet up with Cloud and the others on the roof. Let's go!."

He yanked her arm but she stayed still. Both Zack and Oraian looked at her with bewildered expressions. "I can't, I need to find Xayne. You two go I'll catch up with you later."

Oraian laughed. "Hate to tell ya Lightning but he's probably-"

"Dead? I doubt it. It's Xayne. Now go I'll meet up with you guys later.."

**Xayne...**

"Ahhgh Shit!." He fell against the wall of the elevator. Breathing heavy, with three gunshot wounds and a stab wound. One in each of his shoulders another right below his collar bone, and the stab wound on his left side. He looked around at all the soldier's corpses piled up beside him and couldn't help but to think that his body might be added to that pile.

Maybe Lightning was right. Revenge wasn't the way to go. Funny, that had to be the only thing he learned from her. But it took him to be close to his death bed to fully grasp it. "Oh well if I die here..so be it at least my death won't be in vain..."

_49..  
>50..<br>51..  
>52..<br>53...  
>54...<em>

_Ding!_

The door slid open and several dead soldiers fell in. He wobbled out of the elevator, stepping over the dead corpses and out into the open. It was obvious that someone was there before him but who? Could someone have gotten to the President before him? Everything was blurred and discombobulated in his eyes. The area was spinning and everything looked like it was clouding over. His heart was slowing down and his legs felt like they would give out.

He finally made it to the president's office but much to his dismay, no one was there. Not even the president. Just some lone figure killing off the last soldier and tossing his body out the window, the glass shattering loudly upon impact.

"You truly are an idiot you know that?" Xayne never thought he'd be happy to hear that voice again but he was. Ecstatic, actually. "Lightning...you.." He walked a few inches closer then fell forward but the pinkette caught him. Her first thought was to just let him fall against the floor and leave him to be caught by the soldiers for being so idiotic in the first place but, she couldn't do it. And from the looks of things, he seemed pretty banged up already. Leaving him behind would have only left her with a guilty conscious, something she was always bad at dealing with. "You're stupid.." she mumbled.

She picked the stubborn male up and hoisted him over her shoulder. Her eyes then shifted over to the shattered window.

_'Risky..'_

She thought. But it was the only way since the front door was out of the question. The woman walked over to the shattered window and peered down at how high the fall was.

_'Fifty four floors up...'_

Just then the door was kicked open and in walked a group of soldiers. "Freeze!."

_'Time to go!.'_

Lightning leapt out the window, holding Xayne tightly as they free fell towards the ground. She reached down in the pouch on her right thigh and pulled out the grav-con unit that she attached to her middle finger. It had been a long while since she used the device so she could only hope that it would work. She snapped her finger against the device twice but only a small spark of purple-ish blue energy emitted from it. "This...is not happening.."

They were getting closer and closer to ground's surface; it was only a matter of time before they actually hit it. Lightning panicked and tried again and again and again but kept receiving the same response the device. It was official, they were going to die. Fighting off those soldiers just to get to the entrance sounded like a good idea right now. But it was too late now.

The sound of a loud humming engine filled her ears. She frantically looked around until her eyes landed on a large grey and white ship that quickly zoomed by and caught both her and Xayne's falling form.

"Haha you look scared! Thought you were gonna splatter all over the ground?" Oraian said, grinning down at the soldier who was now scowling at him, though deep down she was glad she was saved.

"Shut up!." She said and stood up with Xayne in her arms. "Where'd you get a ship from?"

Oraian shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. "Not mine, it's Cid's. You haven't met him yet but you will." He explained.

"Everyone is waiting at the bridge so-" He looked down at Xayne who was still unconscious. His body was covered in blood and scratches, hair stuck to his forehead and his skin looked paler. "He gonna be alright?"

Lightning said nothing and just stared at the unconscious male. If only he'd taken her advice earlier, then this could have been avoided. But it was her fault as well, if she didn't lash out on him like she did then he probably wouldn't have ran out on his own. "I..don't know..."

"You know, only way you'll be able to finish your search is if we to take out Shin-Ra. I know that's not what you came here to do, but there are no other options. It seems that everywhere we turn, there they are. If we don't do something, you won't get anywhere. So, what do you say?" He said then turned to face the woman. He was unsure if she even heard a word he had said by her preoccupied expression. She looked troubled, worried. Something he'd never seen since he was dragged along with her. It was odd, and just..not Lightning. "Lightning...?"

"I'll think about it..." She uttered quietly then walked off towards the entrance of the ship.

**~xxxxxx~**

Xayne groaned a bit as he slowly started to wake up. His body felt stiff and numb then everything around him was dark except the afternoon light peeking through the small window to the right, the little bit through the cracked door on the far left. He could also hear light chatter and laughter. _'Where am I?_'

He thought, looking down to realize bandages wrapped around his exposed chest and shoulders. He sat up only to fall back against the bed hissing and swearing from the pain that had shot through his body.

"You're awake..."

His head shot up in the direction the voice had come from to see Lightning sitting in a chair next to the window. She was observing that glowing orb of materia that they had found back in Nibelheim. "Lightning, where am I?"

She slipped the orb back into the pouch then rose from the chair and walked over to the bed where Xayne was laying, stopping just a few feet away from him. The brunet stiffened and gulped. Lightning looked angry, no pissed. In his mind see himself crawling under the bed to better avoid that icy gaze but what went on in his mind was different from what was going now, he couldn't even move.

"Have you any idea," She said lowly, but grinding her voice. He also noticed that her fist was tightening at her side. Oh yea...he knew what was coming next. "HOW STUPID YOU ARE!."

Next thing he saw was white. Lightning's fist connected with his face and he tumbled back on the floor. 'Damn she hits hard..' He thought. The room spun and it even felt like he would black out again. He kind of wished he did since now, it wasn't only his face hurting but the rest of his body as well. He reached one hand up onto the bed and pulled himself back up.

"YOU WOULD HAVE BEEN DEAD IF I DIDNT SHOW UP, WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING!" He suddenly wished he would have stayed on the floor when Lightning's fist said hello to his face for a second time. He grunted in pain as his back slammed up against the wall closest to the door.

All the noise disturbed the group on the outside but only one who was brave enough to step inside to see what was going down was Oraian.

"What the hell is going on in-woah Lightning what are you-!."

"OUT!." She yelled, storming over to appalled male and shoving him out.

_SLAM!_

Oraian ran back to the door and tried to pull it open but it was locked. "Lightning! Lightning stop it you are going to hurt him!."

Lightning could hear Oraian but she was ignoring him. She was too enraged. She looked over at Xayne who kept his eyes at the ground and hair covering his face. His breathing had grown ragged and uneven and both his arms were wrapped around his bandaged torso, the wounds underneath feeling like a thousand swords were stabbing him. "I'm sorry...I'm sorry.." He whispered then turned his eyes up at the angered pinkette. "I was not thinking...clearly...I was so mad...mad at you...for what you had said...to me...I acted..stupidly..."

Lightning wasn't sure whether or not to believe him. To her his words sounded empty. She raised her fist again and threw it in his direction but he caught it. Swiftly, she threw forth her other fist that she surprisingly caught. "But you're no better than me!." His eyes narrowed. "Before you go judging anyone you need to look at yourself!." He swept his left foot under hers to make her stumble up a bit then with his right foot, he connected it with her stomach.

The pinkette grunted as her form was sent catapulting back and slammed into a mirror behind her.

"Would you two just stop!." Oraian called, still banging on the other side of the door but the violence continued.

Just as she was getting up, trying to recover from the shock of being thrown, Xayne threw himself at her, tackling the woman back to the floor despite the shards of glass that were piercing both their skin as they rolled around. Lightning growled and placed her legs against the brunet's injured torso and kicked him off of her.

Both lay on the floor tired, out of breath and most of all sore. Xayne more than Lightning. " You're...not...be-..better than anyone else.." The brunet breathed, rolling on his side and clutching his torso that had slightly started to bleed out during their little brawl. "So stop..acting like it!."

Lightning reached over her shoulder, grabbing the male by surprise and throwing him over her shoulder once again. Xayne went to retaliate but in seconds, Lightning's body was hovering over his own and pinning both his arms down on either side of him. "I never said I was..."

Xayne snarled as he wriggled, bucked and to kick albeit, none of his actions were working, the solitary woman was not moving. He growled and gave up (for now) and turned his head in the direction of the door. He was able to see the shadow of Oraian's shoes. Said male could still be heard shouting for the two to stop. "You don't have to your actions show it..." Xayne commented, noticing the woman's grip loosen.

At that, he took full advantage and quickly rolled against the floor, to switch the the current position, leaving him on top and the pinkette on the bottom.

She threw a fist that was just seconds away from hitting him, but he caught it in the palm of his hand and pinned it over her head along with her other hand.

"Hah!." He said, feeling victorious at that moment.

Lightning hated this and wanted nothing more than to get him off her and beat the hell out of the male for invading her personal space. She would not stay still for any reason, causing the brunet to have to press his body against her own. Not something he wanted to do but was the last resort. "Pride isn't everything you know, you'll only get yourself hurt or maybe even worse one day..."

"A lecture!." She growled.

"No, advice." He said, smirking.

_Breathe...  
>Stare...<br>Breathe...  
>Stare...<em>

The male released her hands and quickly rose up and off of the woman. He even took a few steps back, thinking he may try and do something but she didn't. She just sat there looking in the direction of the window. "Lightning, I'm sorry..."

"..."

"It's just..."

Lightning silently stood up, ignoring the brunet as she made her way toward the door that Oraian was banging against.

"I don't want anything to happen to you Lightning. And when you run off into dangerous situations trying to play hero, I don't know what to think. You're the only friend I have if something happens to you, I don't know what I'll do."

Lightning sighed. Friend or not, why he worried so much about her she didn't understand and it was a little weird. She was never one to sit around and try to break down such a thing like that either since feelings and emotion wasn't her thing. But Xayne, he was-

She turned from the door to face the brunet but he wasn't there. In place of him was that...that silver haired boy that kept flashing across her mind. What was this..some fucked up illusion?

"Lightning...?" The boy called though his voice sounded like a cross of Xayne and someone else's. " Lightning..are you okay?"

"Who are you?" Like that crazy dream she had the other day, this was scaring her. She didn't know what to think. More like she couldn't think. She didn't feel like herself.

"What...?" Xayne was utterly confused and decided to keep still, not knowing what the woman was capable of doing in this state of delusion. There was also something different about her. Her eyes, they had...that _glow_. The same one that Oraian's had. "What the..."

As Xayne inched closer in her direction, the visual of the silver haired boy suddenly faded and the brunet was standing before her once again. Lightning shook her head gently then looked at Xayne who she noticed was staring at her strangely. "What's with-AHHGH!"

"Lightning!."

Said woman collapsed to the floor, coughing and clutching the center of her chest. Her heart was racing and her air way was constricting to the point she was gasping for air. Spasms of pain were shooting across her whole body and she started rolling around on the floor.

"Lightning! Someone come quick hurry!" Xayne yelled.

After the short episode, Lightning rolled over on her back and stared blankly at the ceiling. Her body twitched violently and her breathing was slow and weak. Her muscles felt like they were burning up and her head felt like it was going to explode. _'What's wrong…with…me..' _She thought. Again, the silver haired boy made an appearance in front of her. He looked worried, scared, and he was screaming out her name. _'Who….are you?'_ She exhaled and her head dropped to the side, giving no type of response that she was alive or dead. Her eyes were slightly open and still had that Mako glow present within them.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Wow 8,680 words for this chapter! :D I'm actually quite impressed with myself. I'm only used to reach 4,000 words at the most. Anyhow, did you all enjoy this as much as I enjoyed typing it? (I'm lying. This chapter game me an absolute headache!.) But I hope you did.**

**I love review so leave me some!. :D**

**Until the next chapter..later!.**


	5. Preparations

**Chapter 5: Preparations**

"Lightning!" Xayne shook the woman several times but she still didn't move. "Someone, come quick!"

Barret and the others finally managed to bust through the door. "The hell goin' on in here!?" Barret raged while waving his fist through the air. Xayne looked down at Lightning who still remained unconscious.

Oraian walked to the woman's side and knelt down. He placed two fingers against the side of her neck as he examined her. "I've seen this one too many times before." He stated as his fingers continued to move about Lightning's neck searching for a pulse.

Xayne's eyes filled up with worry as a certain memory returned to his mind. Something Sephiroth told him before they became fugitives. He told him that a soldier could undergo the experiments that Hojo did on them and appear fine afterwards, but as time goes on they will show signs of turning into a monstrosity or degradation. Could this be what was happening to Lightning?

He looked down at his friend, refusing to believe such a thing like that. Lightning was strong. She'd never succumb to degradation or let herself turn into a monster!. "Say, Oraian, what's degradation?" He asked nervously. He didn't even know what it was, Sephiroth never explained it to him.

"It's a condition when the body slowly deteriorates." He began to explain. "When the injection of Jenova cells into a soldier's body fails, two things can happen. One, they can turn into a monster and two, like you said, degradation."

Could Lightning be a failed experiment? "Wh-what's wrong with Lightning then…"

Oraian looked at her eyes then rose to his feet. "She's suffering from a rare condition that comes from exposure of tainted Mako and Jenova cells. "He stated.

"Tainted Mako?" Xayne questioned. "Why would Hojo inject his experiments with tainted Mako?"

"To increase the power of the cells. But doing so puts the host in a life threatening position. But for the most part, Lightning is fine, for now. She's just unconscious." Oraian explained.

"For now!? What do you mean for now!? Isn't there anything we can do? What if she has another episode like this!?" He said frantically. Everyone in the room was staring at him from his out lash but he didn't care. "I-I need some air.." He ran from the room leaving the three in there alone.

A little while later, Lightning slowly woke to see Oraian pacing the floor at the bottom of her bed. She tried to sit up but her sore muscles kept her from doing so and she laid back down.

"You're up.." Oraian said stopping his pacing and staring the woman in her eyes. The glow that was present in them earlier was gone and her normal eye color was restored but she looked paler. "How are you feeling?"

Lightning didn't respond. She just turned her head towards the window that had a patch of moonlight shining through it. Ever since she showed up here a number of things have been wrong with her and now this. "Oraian.."

"Hm-uh?" The male was caught off guard when she called him by his real name instead of the nickname she'd been using the entire time since they'd met up. He wouldn't admit it but he was happy. "Yea?"

"What's wrong with me?" She asked still keeping her eyes focused outside the window.

Oraian glanced down at the floor and began pacing again as he gathered up his thoughts of how to explain her diagnosis in words. "Well Lightning, you're suffering from a rare disease after being exposed to tainted Mako and the Jenova cells." He started. His pacing stopped and tapped the bottom of his chin with his index finger before continuing. "You see, the use of tainted Mako is rare in the labs because it puts the host that it's being injected into at a high risk of death. Only time Hojo uses it is if he strongly believes that his specimen's body can handle it. When the Jenova cells are mixed in with the tainted Mako it's supposed to increase the speed of how fast the cells are supposed to work on the host as well as heighten the overall effect the cells would have on the body. But if the body rejects the tainted Mako as well as the cell's," His pacing came to another halt. "Then we have a problem. With the person's body fighting off the two combinations; the cells and the tainted substance it causes the body to experience a number of side effects; amnesia, hallucinations, seizures, pain of the muscles, and some other terrible symptoms that I'm sure you'd rather not hear. Of course there is a way to keep these symptoms under control but-"

"But…." Lightning cut in without warning. "Save the _'but'_ I don't want to hear it. Lightning would never admit it but she was a little scared. This condition she has now is interfering with things she has to take care of. _'but you're gonna die…' _She had a gut feeling that that was the next set of words to spill from Oraian's lips, something she didn't want to hear. Dying didn't scare Lightning in the least, just the thought of dying without finishing what she had to do is what scared her.

"So, does this rare condition have a name? It would be nice to know the name of the disease that's tearing my body apart.." She asked.

"Yes," He said while scratching the back of his head. "It's called Geostigma.."

Geostigma, it sounded pretty deadly. She closed her eyes and sighed. Hojo was suddenly at the top of the list of people she wanted to dispose of. If she was going to die, she'd want to make sure Hojo would be too, that way no one else would suffer or go through what she does. She reached into the pouch on the side of her leg and pulled out the orb they had found some hours ago. It seemed that she would have to take a little detour from her original plans and focus now on a new one. "Hey Oraian, what you said earlier about us taking down Shin-Ra, count me in."

"Reeeeally..?" He said almost shocked by her words.

She noded. "Yes, I have someone I have to pay a visit to…"

"Awesome, I'll go inform everyone at the bridge." The male exited to room and as he was leaving, Xayne was walking in. The male fidgeted with both his index fingers, irresolute on whether or not he should enter, the two did argue before Light went into shock and he didn't want to do anything that could possible trigger it again. The vision of to the occurrence was still clear in his mind seeing the woman lying there like a lifeless doll was horrifying. He spun on his heel and walked for the door when Lightning's voice rang through his ears, telling him that he could come in. He sighed and looked over his shoulder to catch sight of Lightning staring at him. Again he was hesitant but when the soldier's eyes narrowed he walked to her bedside and lean against the wall.

"You know, I thought you were dead.." Xayne said looking at the woman. Lightning could easily tell that his spirits were dampened by his doleful expression. He gave a fake smile then looked down at his fingers as he started fiddling with them.

"Tch.." She laid back against the bed and folded her arms behind her head, a smirk tugging her lips as she looked his way, the evident look of worry he held for her was pretty lucid in his jade orbs. She gently shook her head and closed her eyes as she began to speak. "I'd think you'd be used to my strange occurrences by now since they're happening so often lately, but apparently not."

He sighed and sat down on the bed beside her. His hand reached out and gently grabbed her arm, making the woman jump slightly from the unexpected touch. "Like I said, I just don't want to see anything happen to you Lightning.." His eyes met with her icy optics briefly, before the woman rolled her eyes in another direction and pulled her arm from his grasp as well. "You worry too much. Nothing is going to happen to me." She said turning on her side, her back now facing the other. His concern for her was beginning to make her feel a little uncomfortable. "I've been fine and will be fine. Stop worrying so much about me. There are other important things we have to take into concern right now. I need your head fully in this Xayne, not floating anywhere else. Got it?"

Typical Lightning, even if she wasn't alright, she'd act like she was just because she didn't want other's help. There she was again, putting her pride before anything else. Xayne half nodded with a melancholic expression on his face. After her little episode earlier he couldn't help but to worry about her, nothing else really mattered right now. But if this was what she wanted then he guessed he would act like nothing was wrong. "Alright Lightning."

The door opened and Oraian gaited in. "Alright guys, were all meeting at the bridge, I have some things I need to discuss."

Xayne nodded then looked over at Lightning who was standing up from the bed but with difficulty. She had stood up halfway then fell back down against the bed, huffing harshly through her nose with a bit of a groan. From pain no doubt. The brunet wanted so badly to help her but he knew that would be the last thing she'd want. He looked over at Oraian who only shrugged then turned for the door. "Hurry you two, everyone is waiting." He then disappeared from the door and ran back towards the bridge. The "clank clank" sound of his boots could be heard against the metal floors, becoming quieter and quieter as he drew further away.

Xayne went to follow right behind him but looked over at Lightning who was still struggling to stand. He turned on his heel and walked to her side. He extended his left arm out to her, drawing the woman's attention. She scoffed then turned her head away, not wanting any help from him even though she knew she needed it. Xayne smiled softly still keeping his arm out for her. "Come on, just this one time Lightning. Is asking for help from someone really that big of a deal, what do you have to lose?"

Yes for her it was because it meant stooping to a lower level, a level of weakness. She never had to depend on others to help her or ever wanted anyone to help her for that matter. Lightning Farron was an independent soldier and nothing was going to ruin that. "I said I'm fine!." She slapped his hand and quickly shot to her feet just to fall forward swearing at the pain that had shot up her spine. The brunet quickly reached his arms out and caught the falling soldier before she could hit the floor. "But you don't need help?" He said holding the woman against him.

"I don't!." She denied. "Now let go of me!."  
>He laughed lightly then helped her to her feet, still keeping an arm wrapped around her waist to support her. "Nope!" He said with a smile and started walking towards the door, despite the stubborn woman dragging her feet against the floor. "We have people waiting for us, so weather you like it or not, I'm helping you!."<p>

If Lightning had the strength to punch him in the face she would have. She sighed and stopped her struggling since the action was useless. The male wasn't letting her go for any reason. The brunet flashed her a toothy smile that she just rolled her eyes at and turned her head in the direction opposite of his.

Compared to being in that dark room with limited light, it was actually much brighter walking through the ships corridors with help from the moonlight. Lightning found herself staring outside the window again watching the puffy white clouds float across the massive blue.

"Say Lightning?" Xayne called, pulling the woman from her thoughts though she still kept her eyes out the window. "What..?"

"Before we left Tifa's bar, you said you remembered something important. What was it?"

"Don't worry about it.." She said harshly.

"Alright, alright.." He flashed her a smile as they both entered the bridge area. Everyone was gathered around waiting. Lightning quickly pushed Xayne away from her and slowly strided over to a wall and rested her back against it. "So, what's the move? Charge in..?"

Oraian took the center of the floor and began to speak. "No, we'll get slaughtered doing that!. Shin-Ra's defenses are top notched so we are going to have to go about this the correct way. One wrong move and it could get any of us hurt or worse." He said in a serious tone that drew both Lightning and Xayne's attention. It was rare for this guy to be serious. He took a few steps back and turned his eyes down at the floor. "I've been in and out of those headquarters so many times that I know everything all the way down to the smallest things. Anyway, if we are going to do this I need to make sure everyone is going to listen to me carefully."

He looked around and everyone nodded their head. His eyes then fell upon Xayne and Lightning, who's careless acts almost got the three of them killed earlier. "Lightning, Xayne what about you two?"

The two looked at one another for a few seconds then nodded in agreement.

At that, Oraian continued discussing his plan of infiltration.

**~xxxxxx~**

Lightning sat on the deck of the airship looking off at the clouds that passed below her. She reached down into her pouch and pulled out the white orb again, examining it closely. She was able to read out some of the letters engraved on the orb but the rest of them were either chipped away or slightly faded.

"What'cha doing?" Xayne asked as he sat down next to the woman. Lightning didn't even hear him come out.

"Nothing.." She said then slipped the sphere back into her pouch. There was a quiet moment between the both of them before Xayne decided to speak out. "So, Oraian decided to launch the attack in three days." He explained to the woman.

"Why so late? You'd think someone like him that's so eager to get rid of Shin-Ra would want to charge in right now. You as well."

He laughed lightly then laid back. "I was thinking the same thing you were, but when he explained it, the idea made better sense. He said that if we go now, they would be expecting it, considering that we all just escaped hours ago. But if we wait it out, we can catch them off guard."

She nodded it did make sense. So Oraian was good at planning attacks after all. She had to give him credit for that if nothing else. He may have been a smart mouth idiot but he was tactful and strategic. "Three days it is then." She said as she rose to her feet. "So where are we headed now?"

"We're going to North Corel, there Oraian says is one of his hiding spots are since we can't return to the one in Midgar right now. And that's also where the rest of the party is located."

"Good." She said then started back towards the inside of the airship. She was starting to feel somewhat woozy again and decided she needed to rest.

"Hey Lightning?"

Said woman stopped and turned around slowly. "What?"

"Uhm.." He stood up from the spot he was sitting in and walked towards her, stopping a few feet away. "I'm…I'm sorry about what I did back at Shin-Ra. If I never acted that way then we probably would have gotten away easily." He turned away from the woman and gazed up at the sky. He felt a little awkward apologizing since he'd never said it to anyone before and it was kind of embarrassing around Lightning. "It's just…"

"Xayne.." Lightning said, walking behind the brunet and placing a hand on his shoulder. "Don't.." She started. These little sentimental moments had to be the hardest for her. She never really knew what to say. "Don't apologize."

The brunet turned around, his left eyebrow raised slightly, showing a sign of confusion at the woman's words. What did she mean? It was his fault after all. "Huh!?"

"Tch.." Lightning shook her head. She was hoping that he would understand what she meant without her having to go into detail but it seemed Xayne didn't quite catch on. "Nothing..Never mind."

"I'm bringin 'er down everyone inside the ship now." Cid said loudly over the ship's intercom.

* * *

><p><strong>North Corel-Hideout 0:22am<strong>

Lightning, and Xayne both sat up against the wall while watching the members of AVALANCE discuss the invasion that would take place in three days. Lightning didn't see or understand why they had to go over this so many times. The operation was so simplistic, a rookie could do it.

Oraian walked into the tent and joined the two of them against the wall. "Hey Lightning, let me see that orb that we found."

"Why?" She asked reaching down into the pouch but waited for him to answer before pulling it out.

He walked over to a wall off to the far right of them that had a keypad on it and punched in a code. The wall slid up to reveal a passageway behind it. "So I can analyze it." He said then gave the soldier a wide smile. "Come follow me, the both of you!." He said then scampered down the passageway.

Lightning and Xayne both looked at one another before pushing off the wall and following the terrorist down the hidden corridor. The wall slid down behind them and the lights above them soon came on, lighting up the whole path. Xayne was pretty impressed but tried his best not to show it, and Lightning just looked around as if she was bored. "You built this..?" Xayne asked.

Oraian came to a stop in front of another door and punched in another code. "Yep." He said as the two sides of the door slid open, revealing a giant white room with lots of technical equipment. "And this is my lab area." He said looking around. "Now, can I see that orb please?" He asked, holding out his hand to the pinkette. Lightning rolled her eyes but finally gave up the sphere without any further arguments. "Thankyou!"

"So how exactly are you going to analyze it and what will analyzing it do terrorist?" Xayne asked, taking the words from Lightning's mouth before she had the chance to speak them herself.

Oraian didn't answer the male right away, busying himself with the machine he had to set up in order to complete the process. He clicked a few buttons on the center of the panel and a tray slid out. He placed the orb inside the tray and it slipped back in. Then busied himself with some controls on the panel's left side which made a hologram screen appear with a bunch of symbols and letters running across it. Then the word "_analyzing"_ flashed in and out on the screen.

"Okay." He said then turned around to face his two comrades. "To answer your question, analyzing this sphere will tell up weather its materia or not. If it's not then it will tell us what it is. If it does turn out to be materia, it will tell us what type it is, what it does, and how it's used.

"And you know this how?" Lightning asked. She was curious about a lot of things that the male knew ever since he diagnosed her earlier.

"Wouldn't you like to know.." Was all he said to the woman. "That's my secret." He smirked, only irritating the pink haired woman.

"Whatever…" Lightning mumbled.

_Analysis complete_

The machine spoke out then began printing the results from the printer. Oraian picked up the long sheet of paper and read over it. Nodding his head and saying _'mm-hmm'_ Several times.

Lightning and Xayne tried to read whatever it was on the paper but they didn't know where to start or end, the information was too hard to understand. "So, what exactly is this report saying?"

"Well," Oraian started as he continued to thoroughly read through the information on the sheet. "It's summoning materia but get this, it's an ancient materia. The enragements etched into it is written out in Pulsian language, and when translated, the letters spell out; B-H-U-N-I-V-E-L-Z- E"

"Bhunivelze.." Lightning said aloud. She remembered that Nankai mentioned that name in the story he told to them. "So this summoning materia is Bhunivelze?"

Oraian nodded. "Precisely, it says here that it can forcibly wake the sleeping god from his slumber, therefore opening the goddess Etro's gate."

"That has to be a bunch of nonsense!" Xayne shouted out. "Nankai, said that Bhuinivelze will only wake after Etro's gate was opened. How is it that waking the god will open the gate!?"

Lightning grunted and fell back against the wall, but quickly gained her stability back.

"You…okay there?" Xayne asked.

"I'm fine. Just a little.." She grunted again, this time holding her upper arm. "I'm just tired."

Oraian watched her actions closely, knowing exactly what was wrong but ignored it for Xayne's sake. "Uhm, as I was saying, you didn't let me finish. It says here, waking an entity against its will, be it materia or through another source, angers the deity. As a deduction, it will cause serious destruction upon its awaking, therefore throwing the world into utter chaos." Oraian said then looked over at Lighting who appeared to be taking in what he said and was trying to process it all.

"We're doing this…." She said earning appalled looks from her comrades.

"ARE YOU INSANE!?" Xayne said raising his voice at the soldier. She had to be losing her mind. He pushed pass Oraian and directly in front of her, no space between either of them. As odd as it was, Lighting didn't seem too bothered by it at the moment. "You'll kill us all, everyone!"

"You didn't let me finish.." She extended the arm out that she was holding and pushed Xayne aside as she wearily walked to the other side of the room. "I was going to say, that as soon as Bhunivelze wakes, we destroy him. After we destroy him, we cross through the gate get what we need and leave."

"You make it sound so simple. Did you forget we're talking about a god here, that's impossible Lightning!" Xayne said slamming his hands flat against the table out pure anger.

"He has a point there Lightning you can't destroy an immortal being, you just can't…" Oraian said baking up the brunet. "You're being a little irrational don't cha' think..?"

The pinkette shook her head and started heading towards the lab's exit. She made up her mind and was not about to change it. Weather they decided to go along with it or not were their choices. "It's not a question of can or can't, some things….." She swallowed down a groan and finished her sentence. "You just do." She said then looked over her shoulder at the two. "You have until the end of our Shin-Ra mission to make up your minds of weather your with me or against me. But know this; your choices will not affect my own." She said leaving them with that.

Lightning gaited outside the village of Corel and walked towards the airship that was parked just outside. The pinkette opened the door to climb inside when she heard footsteps approaching behind her at a quick pace. The soldier swiftly drew Blaze Edge in sword mode and turned around, pressing the weapon against her attacker's throat, well she thought it was an attack but turned out to only be her brunet ally. "Xayne…" She glowered at the male then lowered her weapon and returned it to the sheathe. "You shouldn't rush up on people like that, I could have killed you."

"Heh.." He wrapped both hands around his neck gently and swallowed nervously. "Yea, I know th-that now…" He said then quickly dropped his hands back to his side. "Anyway.." A smile appeared across the male's face. "There is this place that's not far from here and I was wondering-"

"No." Lightning said coldly before the male could even finish his sentence.

"Aww, you didn't even let me finish!" He whined sounding almost like a child.

"Gold Saucer, right?" She stated and climbed up into the airship. "The answer is no."

"Wait!" He grabbed her arm and pulled it, causing the woman to lose her footing and fall out on to the ground. "It'll be fun come on! I asked Oraian but he said no too!"

Lightning stood to her feet and dusted herself off. "I've been twice with a few members of SOLDER and it was far from fun, No! Besides, we have other things to worry about besides fun. Fun can wait until this is all over."

"There is nothing wrong with taking a break, would you relax for once and just have a good time for a change? Being serious all the time has to be tiring and stressful! I know it is for me. So what do you say?"

She huffed began to think for a second or two, Xayne wasn't going to stop bugging her about it until she agreed with him. Then there was nothing really wrong with fun was there? Though she didn't know how to. "Fine…" She said dully. "But only for a little while, got it?"

"Yeah!" He grabbed the woman's arm and raced towards the railway that would take them to the amusement park.

* * *

><p><strong>Gold Saucer- 2:22am<strong>

"You, know, I change my mind let's go back, I'm not up for this anymore." Lightning said, suddenly wanting to leave the minute she set foot in the park. That same corny music that they always played was still playing. Children were running around with stuffed chocobo toys and couples that were madly in love with one another passed the two by. "Yea this place definitely isn't for me so I'm just going to-"

"Oh no you don't!" Xayne grabbed the woman's arm and pulled her back before she could hightail out of the park. "Come on Lightning. Relax.

A man approached the two with a kind and warm smile and greeted them. "Good evening you two, and welcome to the Gold Saucer. Tonight is enchantment night so everything is free. There is also going to be an entertaining show in the even square!"

"Let's go Lightning!" He took the woman's hand and headed over to the Square. Upon their entrance, they were greeted with congratulations at the door. Lightning and Xayne both blinked looked at one another. "Uhm, for what exactly?" Xayne asked, an eyebrow rose to show his confusion.

"You two are our one-hundredth couple of the night so you two will be the leads in tonight's show!"

"C-couple!?" They both said in unison.

"N-no, you see you got it all wrong she's just my-"

"Now, now now! No need to be shy," The man said. "Just play it the way you want and the rest of the cast will cover for you." The man explained and started leading them to the stage.

Lightning sent a death glare Xayne's way but he laughed it off. "Oh Lightning, don't worry it'll be…fun?" he giggled nervously and continued to look ahead.

The play was actually pretty amusing on Lighting's end. Not so much for Xayne. Lightning walked from the event square smirking at a not so happy Xayne. "So you're mad because you had to play the princess?"

He grumbled and stomped his foot against the ground. "I didn't have too, you just wanted to play the role of the hero!"

"It suit me better." She stated simply. "What do I look like playing a princess?"

"You would have looked better than me!" He complained.

"Ah, relax your humiliation is over.." she said and pat the male on the back. "Now let's get back.."

"No, since you humiliated me we have to do one more thing together!"

Lightning sighed. "Are you serious…?"

He nodded. "You know you want to. If not you could have been walked off by now."

She was having a little fun though she'd never let him know that. "Ugh..fine, where to now?"

"The Gondola let's go!"

**~xxxxxx~**

"Two, please!" Xayne said to the rides man. The man handed them two tickets and wished the two a good ride.

Lightning sat on the left side while Xayne sat on the right. The ride was put in motion and soon the two were able to see the whole of Gold Saucer. "Heh, this isn't half bad huh?" The brunet started.

Lightning just sat there quietly with her arms crossed and her eyes shut. Ignoring the male's question. Conversations was something she was really bad at.

Xayne just smiled and continued to look out the window at all the wonderful sights. From Chocobos racing across the track, to fireworks bursting with into beautiful colors in the sky.

"You know, the last time I came here, was when I was four years old. It was me, my mother, and my father." He said with a sad smile. Remembering bittersweet memories of his childhood. "But they left me.." He whispered to himself.

"Hey.." Lightning placed a hand on the male's shoulder. "They may be gone, but they're still with you. Remember that."

He smiled. "Thanks Lightning.."

The Gondola came to a stop back in front of the station and the two stepped out. Xayne stretched his arms then rested them at the back of his head. Lightning just walked at his side saying nothing. "I had a good time tonight; we should do this again sometime. But next time we should really take our time you know, so we can ride more rides!" He said only getting a huff from the woman.

"Don't push it Xayne, this was only a onetime thing, not happening again!" She stated as they made their way back to the railway.

He frowned and pursed his lips. "Oh well, even if this was the only chance I got to hang out with you like this, I enjoyed myself, thanks Lightning.."

She pulled herself up into the railway train and helped the brunette inside as well. "Call me, Light." She suggested.

"Light.." He smiled, feeling that his relationship with the woman was finally starting to grow and move from that one spot it was stuck in this whole time. "Alright then, if you say so….Light."

* * *

><p><strong>Give me feed back in a review<strong>

**Thank you to those who have read this far. :D**

**Stay tuned for the next chapter!**


	6. Journey to Wutai

**Chapter 6: Journey to Wutai**

"_Claire but you promised!" A woman that looked to b__e around the age of nineteen shouted at the woman who was almost identical to her. Lightning said nothing to the girl and just continued looking through the paper work on her desk. She was supposed to be helping Snow and the others with the reconstruction of their new home. The town was nearly finished, all that was being worked on now was Lebreau's bar and a few more homes. Instead of engaging in activity with her sister and the others, she was too tied up in her work lately. More like forced herself into work. She laid the paper down on the desk and looked outside the window at the crystal structure. She would have been glad to help but that would have meant starting all over. She wasn't ready for that, at least not without..them. Starting over meant that soon enough everyone would forget, forget about them, the two that saved them all._

'_Vanille, __Fang.'_

_She looked back at her desk and began fiddling with the paper on top of it. Everyone said it was impossible to bring the two back but she believed otherwise. She'd thought that Snow and the others would understand since they all defied the impossible. But none of them took her seriously, not even her sister. "I can't Serah, I'm too busy at the moment. Then afterwards I have things to do with PSICOM, so maybe another time. Alright?"_

"_You're always busy!" The girl sighed and looked down at the floor. She thought that after the whole l'cie thing her and Light would do more things together and tried to rebuild their sisterly bond but that didn't seem like it was going to happen. Everything remained as it was before she went into crystal stasis but worse. Lightning wouldn't even look at her._

"_You're selfish…" The younger Farron said through gritted teeth before turning her back to the stubborn woman. "You shouldn't m__ake promises that you can't keep Claire!." The girl said as she walked towards the front door. _

"_Serah wait!." The woman __raised her head from the desk only to see the area around her and the pink-haired girl had grown dark, like they were in the middle of a black void._

_Serah continued to walk away like she didn't hear a word Lightning had said._

"_Serah, Serah wait!." Lightning ran after the girl, well tried but it seemed like she wasn't going anywhere. Serah grew further and further away from her the more s__he ran after her until she disappeared into the darkness. "Serah!"_

* * *

><p>"Seeerah!." Lightning jolted up in her bed shivering and shaking from what exactly? She didn't know. She breathed hard and fast like she'd been running. "Serah!?"<p>

'_My…sister..?' _

That girl, that looked just like her, she remembered her clearly. "Serah.." Too obsessed with her work she didn't pay any attention to her or anyone else. What kind of sister was she? Certainly not a good one..

She went to stand up but soon fell to the floor. "N-not this again..Ahhg!" she grabbed her chest where the pain started to gather at. It ripped across her like someone was hacking at her with a blade. "F-fuck!" she screamed out through short breaths. She reached up and grabbed the sheets of her bed, pulling herself up into a standing position. Again she felt another pain shoot up her back and she whimpered.

'_Ignore it Light…ignore it…'_

She said to herself, staggering from her bedroom and towards the bathroom. The pinkette opened the door and clumsily stumbled inside where she fell against the sink. Thankfully the others were sound asleep. At least she'd get away with caring for herself without anyone finding her like this and worrying, especially Xayne. A constant dripping sound caught her attention and she quickly search for the light switch. Her hand fumbled against the wall and flicked the switch on. Naturally her eyes went towards the sink first but there was no water coming from the faucet. Then where was that sound coming-

Her eyes fell upon her reflection in the mirror and her eyes widened with horror. On her forearm was a large patch of black with some dark ooze secreting from it. "Th-the fuck….?" A shaky hand reached up and caressed the blackened area. She then looked at her hand to see that touching the area left the black ooze on her hand. What was it? It wasn't blood.

"Arrggh..ngh!" She took in a deep breath and grunted as pain surged through her whole body again. She gritted her teeth and bit down hard on the inside of her cheek. The pains grew more and more severe to the point Lightning could not withstand it.

"Lightning..?"

"Sh-shit…." Xayne was coming, she knew it was only a matter of time before someone would come to her room. She was falling all over the place after all. She quickly opened the sink cabinet and pulled a bandage roll from inside and proceeded to wrap it around the darkened area of her arm. If Xayne were to see this he would end up panicking, the last thing she wanted. She had to pull herself together quickly, but it was too late. Xayne was already entering the room and seen her wrapping her arm with the bandages.

"Lightning!" He knelt down to the fatigued woman and grabbed her hand. It was cold and clammy. Her eyes also had that strange glow again.

"Xayne, I'm f-fine, okay…I'm just tired.." She said weakly and tensed when pain struck her body again.

" What happened to your arm!?" He asked, grabbing the woman's arm but she quickly pulled it away. "I just cut myself alright. I'm fine Xayne."

"Why do you keep saying that? You're not fine and I'm sure you know that as well!." He scolded as he frantically searched for something but didn't know what he was actually looking for.

"Xayne I'm.."

"Shut up!" He yelled, quite fed up with the way the woman was acting. "You're not fine, what the hell is wrong with you, do you even know!?"

She shut her eyes tightly and shrieked. She couldn't answer the brunet because everything he was saying just sounded like a loud echo. "Shh…st-stop..yelling you're giving me a headache." She whispered weakly and laid against the metallic floors of the bathroom. "I-I'll be fine..Xayne…just need..need..sleep..okay"

"Lightning…." This wasn't the Lightning he knew at all. Well, the prideful part yea but this, weak one. What was happening to her? Little by little she was just falling apart. He was seriously starting to think this was the early stages of what Sephiroth had told him back at the lab. Lighting was….she was…dying? "Lighting let me help you…"

"I'm fine., Xayne..I just need to sleep. Let me..sleep."

"Please…"

"I'm fine..Xayne"

"Please…"

"I'm fine."

"PLEASE!"

"Ugh, fine." She finally agreed since this wasn't going to get anywhere until she let him help her. "W-water…"

"Water? Okay hold on." He quickly stood to his feet and rushed to the kitchen area and got the woman what she needed then returned to her side. "Here.." He sat the woman up from the floor and leaned her against the wall.

Lightning extended a shaky hand and took the glass, raising it to her lips. She took in small breaths since it hurt to take in deep ones. When she finished the water she placed the glass down at her side.

"So are you going to tell me what's wrong with you..?" He asked. In a way he wanted to know but then he didn't. Afraid that the fears of her telling him that she was turning into a monster would come true. But he had to know.

Lighting lowered her head and closed her eyes she really didn't want to be bothered with sharing her sickness with him knowing that it would throw his mind off of things they need to really focus on. She didn't want to lie to him either. So what other choice did she have? "Alright, alright…..I-I have.." Lighting breathed and turned on her side that way she wouldn't have to see the expression on Xayne's face when she told him. "Geostigma…"

"Geo….stigma..?" He wanted to ask what that was but for some reason he couldn't. He was glad to hear it wasn't degradation but this condition sounded ten times worse. "Geostigma…" He repeated to himself a few times. "What…" He bit his tongue and swallowed hard. "Wh-what exactly caused it, Geostigma?" He asked. His body suddenly started to quake violently upon asking. He stood up and walked on the other side of the woman since she'd turned away from him just seconds ago.

As strange as it was, that silver haired boy appeared again,

'_Wh-who are you…..?'_

But instead of freaking out like she had done last time, she just shut her eyes. "Oraian told me that Hojo, injected me with…with tainted." She coughed a little bit. "Tainted Mako, to speed up the process of the Jenova cells effect on my body. But it failed and this here was the results.." She explained dully.

"But you'll get better…right, Oraian said you're going to be fine and back to your normal self soon….right?" Xayne heard his voice crack a bit while asking that question, but by the way the women looked at him through her half opened eyes, that was a good enough _no_ for him. "So you're gonna-"

Lightning's eyes shot open and she reached up and placed a hand over the silver haired boy's mouth, glowering at him. "Don't say it.." She said sharply. "I'm not….."

'_I know your name…'_

Xayne found that hard to believe, even though the soldier said it herself, her condition said otherwise. "Light…"

"I can't have you worrying about me so much Xayne."

"That's hard to do Lightning. How can I not when every time I look away something is happening to you…?" He took his hand in hers and held it tightly.

'_I'm sorry, s__o sorry…..Hope'_

"Hope…" She reached out for the silver haired boy but the image of him faded and Xayne was present again. "You remind me, of him.." She said, earning a puzzled look from the brunet. "Only, more persistent.." She smirked lightly and closed her eyes again.

'_Hope…?'_ The brunet thought.

"Lightning…..?" He called out but the woman didn't answer. When realized that her chest was rising and falling calmly, he figured out that she had fallen asleep. As much as he knew that she would be against what he was about to do if she were awake, he couldn't just leave her laying there on the floor. Xayne slipped his left arm under her legs and his right arm behind her neck and picked the soldier up bridal style. Just before he was about to turn out of the bathroom, his eyes caught a glimpse a puddle of obsidian liquid on the floor. "What the…" He carried Light over to her bed and laid her down then returned to the bathroom.

He knelt down on the floor and ran two fingers through the liquid. It was warm like it had just gotten there recently. He rubbed them together to realize it was some gooey substance. His eyes wandered around the small bathroom space looking around for some kind of crack or something in the wall where it could have come from, but there was nothing. Then where could it have come from?

**~xxxxxx~**

Xayne stepped outside of Lightning's room and leaned against the railing of the stairs. He dropped his head back and looked up at the metal ceiling, in silence. There had to be something he could do. With Lightning having these sporadic and violent outbreaks, was taking a toll on him weather she liked it or not.

"So, we're going to be headed west from here." Oraian yawned as he stretched and walked to take a seat on the stairs next to Xayne. "Just the three of us thought. I've informed Cid the night before about the plan. The airship will remain here in Corel until night fall and he, along with the others will catch up with us in-"

Oraian blinked twice at the male. "What's got your mind so occupied?" He asked, noticing that the male didn't throw any type of remarks his way. Which was odd. Xayne always had something rude to say even if Oraian didn't do anything.

"How come I'm always the last one to hear about things huh!?" He said angrily and rolled his eyes down at the male sitting beside him. "Why didn't you tell me she was sick, and possibly.." He looked away from the male and sighed. Even Though Lightning said she wasn't dying, or wasn't going to die, Her condition was getting progressively worse. He could see it and he knew that she could to. She was just in denial.

"Because you're so emotional." Oraian spoke out. "Right now is not the time for that Xayne. We're all in a bad predicament right now; i.e our battle with Shin-Ra. Lightning is sick I know, but she's not letting it stop her even if it will end up killing her. Who knows we all may end up dying if our plan doesn't go through the way we want it to. But with your mind dwelling and worrying, it will only cause us chaos Xayne, and we don't need that. We need you in your right state of mind. Got It!?"

He huffed and turned his head to the side. "And what if she were to die before our plan goes into motion, then what? I can care less if we fail at our mission to over throw Shin-Ra we can always try and try again like we've been doing for years. But when it comes to someone's life terrorist, you only get one chance. And if Lighting dies, what then? Better yet, what if it was your friend or someone you cared about, would your view of things be different then?"

Oraian sighed. For once what Xayne was saying actually made sense to him. It had been so long since he'd lost everything that was dear to him, that he forgot what the pain actually felt like. It was there but it was too faint. Maybe it was that he'd grown numb over the years from seeing so many that he cared for die right in front of him, and becoming blinded by his revenge he didn't feel pain anymore and was just immune to it. But he never wanted to see others go through what he'd already gone through which is why he started his little plan in the first place. To help them, but was unknowingly blocking out those screaming for his help. "Animam's Elixir. It's a type of medicine I created by mixing low doses of six different types of medicines. It'll calm her symptoms but not cure it. There is no known cure at the moment."

"That's better than nothing. So can you make it then!?"

Oraian nodded. "Of course I can but all the medicines I need are in Wutai.."

"Wutai, fine well let's go tell Cid to kick this thing off the ground and we can head out!"

"Well," Oraian started. "We are going to be headed in that direction anyway, except not by airship but on foot.."

"On foot!?" Xayne grabbed the male up by the collar and slammed him against the wall. "That's going to take us about a day to get there!. Why can't we just go by the airship!?"

"Because, that would draw too much attention. The Shin-Ra are looking for us now no doubt and flying through the sky is too bold. They'll easily be able to find us that way. We don't want that." Oraian further explained. "I know you want to help Lightning but trust and believe me when I say this; her symptoms are not that bad at all. Her illness attacks the body slowly. She'll be fine."

Xayne nodded. That put him at ease a little bit but knowing that Light was sick still bothered him a lot. "Well let's get going then but firstly, What else are you going to Wutai for?"

"Well I've been informed that there is a rebel group over that way and I wanted to see if they were willing to join our alliance. If we can get their army to join us, That'll be even better."

Xayne nodded then turned and faced Oraian. "You got the army, and I'll talk to the rebel group for you." He stated, receiving a confused look from Oraian.

The male tilted his head. "How?"

Xayne laughed. You think you're the only one who has connections around here? Well you're not." He smirked. "Let's get going."

* * *

><p><strong>Junon Area- 12:10pm<strong>

"So I have a question for you terrorist." Xayne said as the two walked across the vast plains. It was now noon and they'd been walking for at least four hours by now. And it wasn't helping that the sun was beaming down on the both of them. They had both wished that there were some chocobos running about the field, or even the sight of the chocobo ranch would have been nice but they were far from that location.

"You know, I'd like it if you'd call me Oraian you know. Oh-Rye-En." He pronounced. "Oraian. I know I'm a terrorist but damn I have a name!. Anyway, what's your question?" He asked.

Xayne rolled his eyes and ignore the male's request. "How do you know so much!? Before you were a terrorist, what did you do?" He asked. He wondered about the male's occupations ever since he showed him and Light his secret little laboratory in Corel.

"I'm just a genius!." Oraian joked and laughed a little but Xayne just kept a straight face making him cease his joke. "No sense of humor huh? Geeze and I thought Lightning was bad.." He huffed. "Well, I joined Shin-Ra when I was twelve but I lied on my registration and said I was sixteen. Let's just say I looked pretty mature for twelve. But I didn't register for SOLDIER, I registered for the Turks. "He placed his arms behind his head and stared up at the sky, recalling the days of when he used to be a part of the Turks. There were good moments, bad moments, and moments he wished he could forget all together. "You see, besides the president, the Turks knew everything that went on within the corporation; of course I didn't know that when I first joined. The main reason I joined was to learn how to properly execute an espionage mission, and how to professionally assassinate targets. Knowing the secrets of the corporation was a bonus that worked in my favor. Which is why I know everything from floor plans and secret routes, all the way to why president Shin-Ra had his own wife assassinated and covered it up with suicide."

"Wh-what!?" Xayne exclaimed out of shock.

Oraian nodded. "Yep, the president is a twisted man. But getting back onto subject, I used the bonus information to my advantage. During the time I was a rookie in the Turks I was never allowed to take part in any of the espionage or assassination missions. Most of the time I was practicing in a simulation. Whenever I finished early, which was practically all the time, those simulations were easy, I would go through and just read all of the private files. It was full with all kinds of dirt and usable information. Even after I was able to join the other Turks on missions I always found time to read over the files. After about a year or two I dropped from the Turks. Told them it wasn't my cup of tea and I was ready to leave. They kindly told me, okay that's fine. Then I heard seven guns click. Next thing I knew they were pointed at my head. Then they said but, we'll have to kill you. They said I had known and seen too much and that leaving the company with that much information was too risky. Of course I didn't want to get killed. So I reasoned with them and told them that I'd switch to the Department of Science and Research with Hojo. Wasn't my thing but it beat having my brains splattered everywhere."

"Personally I think my time with Hojo in the science department was probably one of the most horrific experiences I'd ever gone through. In the beginning it was smooth. I was taught the basics. Watched and followed what the other scientists had done and also worked on some things of my own, which is how I started with antidotes. Experimenting with different chemicals and medicines of all types. Even saved one of the scientist's life."

"But then…hojo came up with the idea of splicing. As if injecting Jenova Cells and Mako into his specimens weren't enough." He shook his head as the images of experiments that had gone terribly wrong played back in his head. "You think what Lightning is going through is bad, no that's pie compared to the shit I've witnessed. The splicing of monster DNA with human DNA had to be the worse of the worse. Unlike them I did research and little experiments of my own, not on people though. And the results weren't good. I tried to tell Hojo that it was a bad idea but do you think he'd listen? He then came up with the idea that if the splice was successful then they could be part of the SOLDIER body. He then passed the idea on to the President who thought the idea was perfectly fine. I tried to warn the understudies, everyone but no one would listen they just blew me off or ignored me and went through with their plan and…." He stopped and started shaking his head. "If only they would have listened to me…"

"That bad…?" Xayne questioned.

Oraian nodded. "Yep. it took several weeks for the projects to develop. Hojo's cocky ass was so confident that it was going to be a major success, that instead of just making one to see how it would work out, he went along and created ten. By the time the final week came, horror struck the entire department. The experiments burst from the pods and came out look like chimeras. Some had the arms and legs of a human and the face of a monster, while others had missed matched of each, spines and wings protruding from areas you'd probably never imagine possible. The sight was horrific it looked to be something from a horror flick."

"Then the creatures began attacking. It was an all out blood bath in the labs that day. Those monsters killed everyone in that room. Except for Hojo and myself. Hojo survived because he fled like a chicken and me, I was the one who had to kill those things, and that wasn't easy neither, but I did it. After that experience I couldn't take being in the science department any longer. Hojo was too cocky for his own good and got his understudies killed. So I enlisted in SOLDIER, stayed there for about four year before going AWOL for a whole two years and joining AVALANCHE, and now here I am today, known as the Shin-Ra Terrorist." He finished then threw his arms behind his head.

"Damn, so you basically went through the entire company. That's pretty cool.." Xayne commented.

"Yea, it was a very interesting experience I must say, never really expected to go through something like that y'know. I mean I knew trying gather tons of information wasn't going to be easy but, I didn't think it was going to be that hard either." He laughed.

Xayne quirked an eyebrow. "This is Shin-Ra we're talking about you do know that. You'll probably lose your arms and legs messing around with them."

He shrugged. "Yea true, but now they will be the ones to lose their arms and legs cause this time WE are the ones who shouldn't be trifled with!." He threw a fist up in the air and leapt up off the ground. "You'll see!."

Xayne nodded and gave thumbs up. "I'm with you on that!."

A few hours had flown by and they were still a ways from their destination. As of now they were passing by Cosmo Canyon area. "Wait hold on." Xayne sat down and fell back against the grass. It had been ten hours now since they started walking and haven't stopped for rest not once. The heat had grown so intense and it was killing him, he'd perspired so much it looked like he had jumped into a lake.

"And you were in SOLDIER?" Oraian commented, peering over the tired male with a smirk. "I'm not tired yet. Thought you had more stamina than that." He laughed. It was pretty hot out though so the brunet wasn't exaggerating about that.

"SOLDIER members get exhausted too y'know." He said, standing to his feet wearily. "We're only human, not super soldiers!." He responded breathing in and exhaling deeply.

"Well according to Shin-Ra-"

"Screw Shin-Ra!," Xayne shouted, cutting in on Oraian's statement before he could finish. He finally finished catching his breath and began walking again, Oraian right beside him. "What Shin-Ra made were monsters not super soldiers. Look what's happening to Lighting for crying out loud!."

Oraian agreed he had a point but a lot of the soldiers that underwent the injection of Jenova Cells didn't fail. Lightning's case was different. Hojo took the experimentation too far thinking that Lightning's body could take it when really it couldn't, therefore the end results being her illness. "Well the faster we get to Wutai the faster we can help her. So we should probably put a little more pep in our step. Yeah?"

**~xxxxxx~**

**Niblheim Area- 21:39pm**

"Hey Xayne," Oraian called out to the brunet.

"What is it?"

"Well." He started. "You know a lot about me, so why don't you tell me about you huh?"

The brunet stopped suddenly then turned around and looked at the male. He only asked the male about his knowledge of everything because he was suspicious of him not because he wanted to "get to know" him. "None of your business!." He barked.

"Geez you don't have to be so touchy! All you had to say is you don't feel like talking!"

Xayne shook his head lightly and looked down at the ground. He never really liked talking about himself because it was never anything exciting to talk about. All his memories were nothing but painful and bittersweet, ones he wished that he could forget but he couldn't. They were like a scar and would remain there forever. He sighed deeply and started walking again. Maybe that's all he needed. Maybe he needed to talk to someone about it. Let out all his feelings of hate that he had been harboring for so many years. He looked over his shoulder at Oraian who was mumbling under his breath. But was he the right person to share it with…A terrorist?

"I spent…" He started, catching Oraian by surprise. I spent a short time of my childhood in Wutai." He thought he should at least give it a try. "It used to be a town full of happiness, good spirits, just full of life. There was no negativity everyone was always friendly. The people that used to come visit ended up living there because they loved the environment so much." He closed his eyes as nostalgia started to hit him. The memories of his happiest days washed back in his mind. The days when he didn't have to give a care in the world about anything, all he had to do was live. "But then, Shin-Ra came along. You see, Shin-Ra was belligerent towards Wutai because they refused to allow the company to place a Mako Reactor in that location.

For a while, the Shin-Ra backed off accepting Wutai's wishes. That is until they sent a brigade of soldiers during the late evening to try and sneak attack us. We warded them off but they left a warning saying they will be back. So at the time, my father the general of the Wutai military had a meeting with Godo Kisaragi, the nation leader and spoke about the possibilities of a war. It was short notice but Godo agreed and ordered an emergency evacuation of all the Wutai citizens. The only problem was that no one in Wutai wanted to leave, they wanted to stay and help the military against Shin-Ra. My father tried his best to talk them out of it by telling them that they were putting their lives on the line and that war was a serious matter. But the people didn't change their minds they didn't care. They wanted to protect their home. Even I wanted to stay. I may have been young but I knew enough from being around my father y'know."

For the people's determination, my father allowed them to join in the war Godo wasn't so much for it but after my father explained to him how they wanted to protect their home, he understood.

The next day everyone was suiting up. Even I was preparing for the battle." He laughed. "I was outside my house with a stick in my hand, a toy bucket on my head as a helmet and a garbage can top as a shield. I remember running to my father as he stepped outside and telling him I was ready for the battle. He only laughed at me and told me I was silly. He told me that maybe one day I would lead military forces and take part in protecting something that was important to me but today just wasn't that day, and that I was too young. Just seconds after that, a carriage that was being pulled by a chocobo stepped up in front of our home. He said that instead, my mother and I would be leaving and staying in Midgar until the battle was over. Of course I was sad. I wanted to be able to fight alongside my father but I understood. I hugged my father, not knowing that it would be the last time I'd see him and hopped inside the carriage. He and my mother said a few words to each other before giving a hug and kiss. When my mother stepped into the carriage it immediately pulled off. I remember her wrapping me into her arms and holding me close. That was the first time I'd heard her cry. I didn't know what to do so I just held her and laid my head against her chest.

It was the second day and we had not reached Midgar yet. We had the chocobo pull over to the side of the river and take a rest while my mother and I refilled our canteens with water. I looked over at my mother and could easily tell that she was still very sad about parting from my father. I was still very torn about it too but she was taking it harder than I was. Love was a powerful thing. I never knew that as a child but if I did then I would have probably understood her pain a little better. She tried to hide it from me with her smiles, to make me not worry but I could always see right through it. Whenever she gave me her psudo smiles, I'd always hug her and tell her to not force herself to smile if she didn't mean it. It broke me to see her trying to be happy for my sake. If she wasn't giving a genuine smile I didn't want her to smile at all y'know.

Shortly after, a chopper flew over our heads. We had thought nothing of it at first but when we seen two more fly by we became worried and quickly rushed back to the carriage. The chocobo took off and continued northeast. As we traveled further we started to see more and more choppers flying one after the other. It was obvious now, The war was about to begin. Then suddenly, I heard a loud noise humming above us. My body shook and my heart was pounding in my chest. I was terrified, so terrified that I started praying to myself. But what stopped me from my prayer, is when I heard the chocobo cry out. Then I heard voices, screaming voices. They were saying step out the carriage and identify yourself. They banged harder and harder until they became fed up and said that if someone didn't step out, then they were going to blow the carriage to bits. I felt my mother's arms loosen from around me and she gently pushed me away. I looked at her with wide worried eyes. She kissed my forehead and told me that she loved me but I didn't like the way it was said. My stomach knotted in a thousand knots and when my mother started stepping out of the carriage it felt like she was slipping away from me, leaving me forever. I called out to her but it was very low, I couldn't find the strength to yell out. I reached for her arm but it was too late. when I went to follow behind her she shut the door.

For a few minutes I heard nothing, just muffled voices of men and my mother's voice. I started to calm down some, thinking now that they only wanted to talk. So I peeked outside the window but my mother looked frantic. Then all of a sudden I heard five gun shots sound. My mother's facial expression changed to that of shock and surprise. She turned to look at me and…" Xayne stopped and fell to his knees. He began to sob as he buried his face in his arms. He tried to hold it in but he's been doing that for years now and finally released it. He banged his fist against the ground and let a loud yell that made Oraian take a few step back. It was a little odd seeing Xayne in his current state. He was so used to the brunet being an asshole towards him or trying to be so arrogant, seeing him this way bothered Oraian so much he didn't even want Xayne to finish the story. "H-hey…" He knelt down to the brunet and laid a hand on his shoulder. "You, said enough you don't have to say anymore alright?"

Xayne shook his head. He wanted to continue he had to finish otherwise all of his feelings wouldn't be released. He'd still have so much hate built up inside him. "She slowly walked to the carriage and fell to her knees. I burst from the carriage and sat down next to my mother. Four Shin-Ra soldiers stood pointing their guns up at the both of us. I could see the life draining from her eyes as the blood seeped from her chest and stained the grass and my hands. I almost cried but she told me not to cry for her and that she was going to a better place. But that she would always be with me watching over me. I begged her not to leave me that I needed her but she didn't listen. She uttered that she loved me one last time then told me to run. Then her eyes shut and her breathing slowly ceased. I was so appalled, scared and horrified. I didn't know what to do. I got up quickly, forgetting that the soldiers had guns on me and ran. Strangely everything seemed like it was happening in slow motion. I didn't even realize they were shooting at me all I heard was something that sounded like distorted banging and voices saying get him don't let that kid get away. I ran as far north as I could go. By the time night had fallen I was two miles outside of Midgar and collapsed to the ground."

Oraian wiped his eyes and fell back into a sitting position. "My body was sore I was tired and my shoulder was leaking blood. I didn't notice it earlier but I had been shot twice in my right shoulder. My adrenaline rush must have blocked out any feeling of pain at the time but I had started to feel it then. I continued my journey until I finally made it into the Midgar limits. I looked around but couldn't tell or make out much of anything since my vision was so bleary and blotched with black. I passed out just minutes after arriving from severe blood loss. I was found by a man named Lorel. He wasn't the kindest man but he helped me none the less and let me stay with him when I told him my situation. His house wasn't nothing special it was kind of run down and looked as if it would fall apart any day but I had a place to lay my head so I wasn't complaining. As the months went by, I waited and waited for my father to come look for me or some type of response that it was okay for me to go home but there was nothing. Lorel and I started to become closer and closer but as much as I wished he was my dad, he wasn't. He shared his life stories with me and even told me that losing his wife and son is what made him the bitter man he was, but him finding me was a blessing of sorts he said. But, two years later, he died of pneumonia and I was alone again.

The months came and gone and the seasons changed. I scavenged for food and water as best I could I even stole from stores at times to feed myself. One day I went to the park area and began to think. I started to give up hope. I started to believe that my father had abandoned or forgotten about me. Then a girl walked up in front of me. I remember her so vividly it's almost like I just seen her. She had long brown hair, bright green eyes and bright smile. Just being in her presence made me feel…better for a short moment. She looked at me and took my hand before frowning sadly. She then hugged me and told me it was going to be alright that my father was watching over me from the sky.

What she said threw me off. I had no idea what she meant and didn't really want to know but I asked anyway. And she told me that my father had died in battle four months ago. I didn't believe her and grew mad that she was making allegations about things she didn't know about. I told her that she should watch what she says and ran off. Surely enough, the following week one of the soldiers from Wutai, disguised as a citizen found me and told me of my father's demise. I couldn't believe it I didn't want to believe it. That girl was right..but how did she know?

The years went by and my life was starting to get better and better. The memory of my parent's death never left my mind but I was less sad about it. By the time I was sixteen I returned to Wutai and joined the military forces. After my father died, my uncle stepped in and took his spot as general. My father and my uncle were never got along since my uncle was always jealous of him. I never cared for him much either since he always tried to ruin my mother's relationship with my father by always flirting with her or send flowers to her from anonymous persons. Another thing that bothered me was that he used to work for Shin-Ra after dropping from the Wutai ranks when the first general retired and turned his position over to my father. So knowing he was general made me skeptical. But I eventually found out what he what he was up to two years later. He was secretly helping Shin-Ra with trying to over throw, but when I was able to prove what he doing, he was stripped of his rank and thrown in the Wutai prison for treason. After that, I was appointed general of the Wutai army."

"Interesting story. So if you're the general of the Wutai army, then how did you get caught up working for Shin-Ra?"

"Two years after becoming the general, we were receiving threats from them about another possible attack but I wasn't sure when. So I went undercover as a SOLDIER member to try and get as much information as I could about this "possible" attack. There were rumors that Sephiroth was going to lead the attack then there were rumors of Sephiroth and someone else that would be leading the attack. They kept setting the date for their little surprise attack but kept pushing it back further and further because the soldier that was supposed to lead the attack with Sephiroth was still undergoing experimentation in Hojo's lab. So the attack never happened. But of course I wasn't about to leave just because they didn't follow through with their plan. I mean what if they would have gone through with it after I left. I would have been screwed. So I stuck around longer than I had hoped for and well, this is how I ended up in the situation I'm in now. So I'm fighting against Shin-Ra for Wutai."

Oraian nodded. Things may have started out terrible for the brunet but it seemed that it had gotten better for him in the end and that was always a good thing. In ways Oraian realized that he and Xayne weren't that different from one another. They both were fighting for a purpose. "You know, we can kind of relate to each other you know. We've both been through so much over the years yet we're still sane, and trying to accomplish the same goal.

Xayne nodded. He may not have liked Oraian but he couldn't deny that they both were similar. "You're right. Who would have thought that I'd have something in common with a terrorist?" He joked as he stood to his feet. His eyes scanned the area realizing that they were now standing on rocky terrain. He took a second look over his shoulder to see they were a few feet away from a draw string bridge. "Well, seems we're just about there. Just gotta head over that bridge, keep north and we'll be there in no time!."

Oraian yawned and stretched his arms over his head. All the traveling had made him tired and he couldn't wait to lie across a bed and pass out. "Well we need to hurry up because I'm very tired."

"Let's get going then."

* * *

><p><strong>Wutai- 22:45pm<strong>

"Freeze!."

"Stay where you are!."

"Don't move!."

"Oh shit.." Oraian mumbled as he and Xayne raised their hands up over their heads. They were just at the gate to the village entrance and were stopped. "Was this the warm welcome you were expecting Xayne?"

"Shut up.."

A group of Wutai soldiers surrounded the two pointing all their guns up at both of them. Xayne wasn't at all surprised that the soldiers approached the both of them this way. Ever since that war with Shin-Ra Wutai has always been under high alert. No one of Shin-Ra Inc. were allowed in Wutai. He was a bit irritated with himself that he didn't remember that. He made that rule after all.

"Stand down men." He slowly reached in his pocket causing all of the soldiers to direct their guns to him alone. "Woah, woah, woah! I'm not up to anything." He pulled his wallet from his pocket and flashed his ID to the soldiers. Quickly they lowered their weapons. "G-general Nior, Sir, we apologize it's just that-"

"No need for apologies you guys are only doing your job. I shouldn't have come up here parading around in a SOLDIER uniform. That's a mistake on my end." He explained.

The soldiers stepped aside and opened the gate, allowing Xayne to pass through to the village but not Oraian. They quickly rose their guns again, irritating the dual-color haired male. "Oh come on I'm with him!." He said stretching his arm out towards Xayne.

The brunet turned to his soldiers and informed them to let Oraian through and that he was with him. They obliged and allowed him access to Wutai as well.

"Geez!. You run a tight ship around here I see. I'll keep a mental note not to come through here wearing a Shin-Ra uniform next time!."

"Have to. Keeps unwanted people out. It's not just for affiliates of Shin-Ra but for any suspicious outsider period. You have to have proper identification to get into Wutai now." He said as they began walking up the long set of stone steps to get to town.

"So they do that to everyone that approaches the gate?" He wondered. It would be pretty odd if they did. Wouldn't it just scare people away from this area?

Xayne shook his head. "No, only Shin-Ra soldiers and their affiliates. They'll ask a normal person for identification. For example, say a random person from Medeel, were to come here. All they would have to do is show their identification card and they're in. But if someone like you or Lightning were to come through here and flash your ID you'd be escorted out simply because persons in SOLDIER or with Shin-Ra period have different identification cards than a normal citizen." He further explained.

"Oh.." Was all he could say.

They finally came to the top of the stairs where the town started. Xayne's eyes grew wide with shock at how much the population had grown over the time he was gone. The village was crowded with millions of people and it even seemed like the village had expanded in a lot of areas. It was almost as if nothing had ever gone wrong to begin with.

"Wow…" It was Oraian who spoke. He'd remembered visiting this place back when he was around seven years old, when it was nothing more than a mere tourist attraction. But now it's like any normal town. The population looked to be close to Midgar's, almost. "This…is Wutai?" Oraian asked, looking over at Xayne who still appeared to be very surprised.

"Seems..seems like it." Xayne said with a growing smile on his face. His home was returning to its former glory which filled him with much bliss and joy. "Alright, alright." He shook his head twice then looked at Oraian. "We have to remember our mission. You get what you need for your medicine and I'll get the army and they rebel group to cooperate with up in our operation. Got it?" He said in a serious tone, though he was smiling.

"Got it!." Oraian responded with a thumbs up.

"Oh one more thing." Xayne reached down in his pocket and pulled out a badge that he placed in Oraian's hand. "This is to keep you out of trouble just in case you run into with any of the Wutai forces. Just show them this and tell them you're with Xayne, they won't bother you."

"Alright, I'll meet you back at the Inn." The male said and walked off into town.

**~xxxxxx~**

When Xayne arrived at the military base he received a warm welcome back from a majority of the soldier body. Seemed that word about his return had spread around very quickly.

"General Nior it's good to see you're back and are well." One of the operatives said as Xayne passed by.

"Thank you! I'm glad to be back. But what I need is for you to gather all of the men up in the mess hall. I have a very important announcement to make. Do that for me right away." He ordered.

"Sir!." The operative said and scurried away in a hurry down the next corridor where he received many more welcome backs. While there were many that were glad to see him return, there were those that were not at all glad to see him. They believed that he abandoned them for Shin-Ra and made smug comments as he passed by.

Xayne quickly made his way to the mess hall where everyone quickly began to gather. He took his spot at the front and stood before his troops. Some stared at him with angered expressions while others stared clueless and wondered what was going on.

"Alright," He said grabbing the microphone from the alter that one of the operatives place in front of him. "Everyone settle down." He said, making all the chattering cease and all eyes focused on him.

"Good evening everyone, I am pleased to say that I'm glad to be standing before my troops once again, but I know that there is more than a handful of you that are not to glad to see me." The crowd whispered amongst one another, some nodding their heads while others just continues to listen.

"I want say that I apologies for walking out on all of you on such short notice. But I had to do what I had to do. At the time we were receiving threats about another possible war with Shin-Ra so I had to take action you see."

The soldier began whispering to one another once again until one of them decided to speak out, telling Xayne that he obviously had no type of faith in any of them if he felt the need to go alone.

Xayne shook his head in disagreement. He explained that he didn't go alone because he didn't trust his men He trusted them all. But what he needed to do required only one person. Taking several of them along with him would have been too risky so he stepped up and went.

The soldiers all discussed it amongst themselves and came to the conclusion that their general only did what he did for the people and the wellbeing of Wutai. In unison they all nodded their heads and saluted him, showing that they accepted his apology.

"Thank you." He said with a smile. He was very much relieved to know that his troops weren't against him. "Alright," his tone grew more serious now. "Since you all wish to participate in something big, I have the perfect operation for you." From there he began to explain the situation as well as the plan to his men.

**~xxxxxx~**

Xayne entered the inn and asked the keeper if anyone by the name of Oraian Eclipese had been signed to a room. The keeper responded with a yes and told him the room number. Xayne sluggishly climbed up the stair towards the room. It was a long tiring day and now all he wanted was sleep. When he finally made it up the stairs, he walked all the way to the end of the hall and opened the first door on the right. Surely enough Oraian was inside, still working on the medicine.

Judging by the dark purple circles under his eyes, he looked like he was going to fall out at any minute. Xayne kicked his shoes off and flopped back on the bed across from Oraian. He let out a sigh of relief before turning on his side as his body sunk into the softness of the bed. "Well I got the "okay" from the military, the rebel group leader said he'll talk it over with his group and give us an answer as soon as possible."

"Good, good at least that's one check mark on the list." Oraian said slowly, still concentrating on what he was working on.

Xayne yawned and slowly started closing his eyes, feeling sleep slowly start to take over. "S…so how's the medicine coming along?"

"Hmm.." Oraian dragged his eyes from the flask after adding the final drop of Penicillin into the mix as well as sprinkling in a crushed up Oxycodone pill. He placed a top on the flask, shoot it for about twenty seconds, and put it in the small refrigerator in the corner. "It's done just has to sit in a cool place until the morning." He laid across his bed and closed his eyes. The day was a long one and tomorrow was going to be no better so he needed to get as much rest as possible. His eyes suddenly shot back open as a thought swam across his mind. "Hey," He sat up so quick Xayne thought something was wrong, making him suddenly jump up as well. "So what are you going to do after this huh? You know, The whole thing with Lighting wanting to use the Materia and wipe out all of mankind while doing so!."

Xayne sighed, it slipped his mind honestly. With all this going on he never really gave much of a thought about it which he really should have been doing. He shrugged and shook his head slowly. "I don't know really. I can honestly say that I don't feel comfortable partaking in such a crazy idea like that. Waking a god and causing the world to fall into chaos? I wanna help her I do but this idea she has is insane!."

Oraian agreed and told Xayne that he had considered disbanding from them as soon as the operation was done and over with. Xayne agreed and explained his only reason for joining was to take out Shin-Ra. He would break away from Lighting but she helped them with what they wanted even though it wasn't what she wanted to do initially so the least they could do is try to help her. Disbanding and leaving her alone would be unfair and wrong on their end.

Oraian gave a nod of his head. The brunet had a point Lightning did help them with their plan so there was no harm in help the woman with hers. They just had to find another way to go about it and fast. Only issue was how? How could they go through with Lightning's plan without tossing the world into destruction? It was impossible.

Oraian peered outside the window and tried to think of something. Out of all the things he'd read over the years. He tried to pull something, anything from his mind that could possibly give them a start but still, his mind was blank. "Shit!." He banged his fist against the window sill and sighed. "I don't know Xayne, let me sleep on it, when I return to the airship I'll ask Nankai and see what he has to say about it."

"Got'cha." Xayne laid back down on his bed slowly fell asleep. Oraian closed his eyes as well and tried his best to get a good night's sleep. That is until his phone rang.

"Ugh! What now!?" He reached over on the nightstand and grabbed the phone. He squinted his eyes and seen that the caller ID read Yuffie. "Hello." He said tiredly.

"Oraiaaaaaaan!" The girl screamed making the male pulled the phone away from his ear." We're on the way to get you guys now! We've had a bad run in! Be ready!." She said then hung up.

"Yuffie wai-" He sighed and quickly sprung up from the bed. Seemed like he wasn't getting any type of sleep tonight.

"Xayne wake up!." He shouted, making the male role out of bed and hit the floor. "Wh-wha what's going on!?"

Oraian continued to gather up all of his things and quickly threw on his turtle neck vest. "Cid and the others are on their way over here."

"N-now!?" He said and slipped his shoes onto his feet.

"Yes now! Something happened. Yuffie hung up before she could explain the full details to me. But whatever it was didn't sound pleasant." He walked towards the window and took a peek outside. His stomach was twisting and turning all over the place to the point he began to feel nauseated. "He just hoped that it wasn't what he thought it was..


	7. Final Matters

**Chapter 7: Final Matters**

**Wutai- 0:11am**

The airship quickly landed directly outside of Wutai and right away all the AVALANCHE members including Lightning rushed out. Oraian, alone ran up to his comrades in panic wondering what's happened after Yuffie's distress call.

"What is it!?"

Oraian asked in a frantic tone. He'd usually be calm in situations like these but currently he was not. He seen Tifa step forward and she explained that two squads of Shin-Ra soldiers had attacked them unexpectedly, and had it not been for Lightning and Cloud being on the deck at the time the attack occurred, it could have been much worse.

His eyes wandered over to the blond and the pinkette and gave a silent thank you by only nodding his head. He lowered his head and began to think. This was really bad? Why was Shin-Ra attacking them? They were very discreet with everything they have done thus far so they can't possibly know that they were about to attack them. Right? No. He shook his head and looked up at the sky. All this planning, everything was going perfectly fine and there was no way in hell that he was about to fail at this again. No, this time he was going to win this battle and end Shin-Ra's terrors once and for all.

"Alright," He said and turned to his comrades. "They attacked us. So what? They probably just wanted to scare us, but that doesn't mean that we are going to back down!." He threw his fist up in the air as a confidant smirk stretched across his lips. "This is our time. They've had their reign and have bought terror upon us all, taken things away from us that were dear and precious. So today we fight and take a stand. No more will we walk in the shadows of Shin-Ra and fear them. Today AVALANCHE will leave its mark and we'll show them whose boss!"

All the members of the rebel group cheered and slapped each other high five as he gave his speech. He looked around, glad that his comrades were pumped up and feeling confidant for the battle to come. His eyes then fell upon Lightning who was just leaning up against the airship with hers crossed over her chest, ignoring the happy cheers of the rebel group, typical.

Oraian walked pass his comrades and towards Lightning. The woman didn't realize he was there until she felt his hand touch her shoulder, which startled her. "My bad.." He said. From afar she looked fine but now that he was very close to her, she still looked very pale and tired. "You alright?"

She took a small breath and gave a firm nod though she really wasn't. She felt worse than she ever felt. Her muscles were killing her from all the twisting, flipping and agile movement she was doing while fighting off the SOLDIERs with Cloud, and she had a migraine. But she refused to complain and casted all the pain aside to not worry others. "I'm fine…where's Xayne?"

The male frowned; he could tell that the woman wasn't telling the truth about her condition by the way she looked. He bet that if the airship wasn't here to support her body she would have collapsed to the ground by now. But who was he to say otherwise? The woman said she was fine so she was fine. "He went to get his army."

"His…..army?" Lightning slowly turned her head towards Oraian and looked at him through half opened eyes. Since when did Xayne have an army? "He has an army?"

Oraian chuckled. He can't blame Lightning for being surprised, he was surprised too when Xayne told him that piece of information. "I know right? Of all people to be the general of the Wutai army forces, he was chosen."

'_General…'_ She huffed and shook her head. "He's just full of surprises I see. And to think he was once jealous of me."

"Jealous?" Oraian questioned

"Don't wanna talk about it." She said then looked away from the male.

"And I don't wanna hear about it." He said, and half smiled at the woman. "Uhm," He placed his arms behind his head averted his gaze up at the sky. "Uhm…thanks….Lightning." He said lowly but enough for the woman to hear him.

"Oh?" Her eyes opened fully now at the male showing gratitude towards her. "Thank you for what?"

"Helping us out y'know, even though I know it wasn't what you expected to do but, I'm grateful that you did."

"Yea..no problem." Was all she said. "We have to be smart about this attack though, we were caught off guard yea but rushing in blindly because of that won't be smart." She stated.

"Yea I know." He said agreeing with the soldier. He knew that rushing in wasn't the best tactic because Shn-Ra would b expecting that and could possibly lead to their failure. Something he was desperately trying to avoid. "So what are we going to do?"

"I've got an idea." Lightning spoke up catching the male's attention. "It's a risky one, I'm 100% sure that it'll work. I remember using it for many battles back when I was a soldier for the Sanctum."

"The Sanctum…?"

"Don't worry about it. I'll explain how to execute it when Xayne arrives with his army."

Shortly after, Xayne came walking through town with a large body of troops. There was easily over 10,000 of them, each carrying different weapons that ranged from, guns, spears, staffs, lances, and swords. "Halt!." The brunet shouted. All the men stopped and looked in the man's direction. Xayne turned around and faced his two comrades, giving them a small nod. "We're here."

"Good." Lightning said and grabbed him and Oraian's. "We have something to discuss." She said and took them both into the airship. "Alright," She spoke and slowly began pacing the ground in front of the two males. "As I was telling Oraian before you arrived Xayne, we can't just swoop in and attack like we want to because they will be expecting us to do that. So I think we should go about it a different way; Attack them from every direction."

Xayne and Oraian looked at one another then back at their female comrade. That didn't sound like much of a good plan at all. "Uhm…what?" they asked dumbly.

She slapped her forehead and grunted. Were they that dumb? She grabbed a piece of paper and a pen from a table and began writing and drawing something out. "Alright." She pointed to where she wrote down the name _SHIN-RA. _"Alright, from the time I spent in SOLDIER I realized that their common attack is from the ground. And they only emerge from one direction, the south. So with that being said," She drew little circles in the north, south, east and western directions and wrote _W/A _next to it, representing Wutai and AVALANCHE. "If we emerge from all directions, then we can easily wipe them out we can also attack from the sky." She explained.

"Uh-huh." Xayne said the woman's plan processed through his brain and started to make sense. It was a perfect idea. He kind of wish he would have thought it up first. But she was right, a majority of the time, Shin-Ra did only attack from the ground especially if they didn't suspect their attackers to be that much of a threat. "She's right, we got this one Terrorist."

"Huh, how exactly..?" Oraian still didn't understand how they had the upper hand.

"All the years you spent in there and you never recognized the pattern in which they fight?" Xayne asked. For a terrorist, he Oraian was pretty dumb.

"I was busy with more important things thank you!." He shouted in his defense. "Besides you didn't know either until Lightning said something!.

"Whatever." He said then went on to explain to him what the pinkette was talking about. "Anyway, basically what she's saying is the Shin-Ra battle pattern. Let's use the Wutai War as example one, only time Shin-Ra feels the need to attack from several directions than one, is when they feel their enemy is going to be a serious threat. They did just that during the Wutai War, which is why they conquered. But if their enemy isn't a threat at all, they attack only from the ground and only in one direction. Example number two, AVALANCHE. They are expecting only the eleven of us to try and stop them so they'll come at us from one direction which gives us more of a chance because like I said, they are only expecting the eleven of us, not an entire army."

"Ahhh, I see. Wow Lightning that's a really smart idea!." He said feeling a whole lot more confident than before. "So we can send 2,500 soldiers in each of the cardinal directions and win?"

"Precisely." Lightning said.

"Great!. Well then I'll go and explain to everyone so we can set this into motion!." Oraian shouted running outside the airship.

**~xxxxxx~**

"You alright?"

Lightning nodded. "Yeah I'm fine Xayne." She said then sat down against the wall. Her head was still hurting and everything suddenly started spinning.

'_Liar..'_

He thought to himself. It was really starting to bother him that she continued to put her pride before her own life. Was she that proud that she'd rather die before letting someone help her? He reached down in his pocket and pulled out a small flask with some clear contents in it and held it out in to her. "Here, it's some medicine that Oraian made to calm your illness."

Lightning took the flask from Xayne's hands and threw it across the room. The small flask fell against the floor and cracked, causing the medicine inside to spill out. She felt that taking medicine was for the weak and she was far from that. She didn't need medicine to make her better she was perfectly fine.. "I told you don't worry about me, I'm fine. What part of that don't you understand?" She said bitterly.

Xayne shook his head and clenched his hands into fists. How could she just throw something that was going to improve her health away? The way she continued to act was really getting on his nerves. The brunet knew that what he was going to do would possibly get him beat up but he didn't give a care. He walked towards the pinkette and grabbed her shoulders and shook her back and forth. "What's wrong with you what's going through your head!? I'm just trying to help you!." He turned his eyes towards the small window and sighed.

The many years that had passed, even before his time in the military he was never able to do anything to save the ones he cared for. He'd watched loved ones and friends die right before him and could do nothing about it. He didn't want it to be the same thing with Lightning. Knowing that he was able to help her, even if it was a little bit, he jumped at the chance. "Light.."

Lightning placed both her hands on Xayne's chest and pushed him back. He really didn't go as far as she had hoped since her strength wasn't at its best at that moment in time. She took a deep breath and lay against the floor. All his screaming was making her head feel like it was going to explode. "I never asked for help because I don't need it. If I really needed help I would ask for it." She said, though she really wouldn't she only said that in hopes that Xayne would just leave her alone.

"You're dying Lightning!." Xayne shouted out as he walked back in front of the woman and pulled her up into a sitting position. "You're dying, weather you choose to believe it or not, just look at you.."

Lightning shook her head and covered her ears. She knew that already. But she didn't want to believe it. She believed that there was a way to beat her sickness. But even she questioned whether or not she was believing a lie. She clenched her fist against her head before swinging it back and connecting it to the side of Xayne's face. "No I'm not!,"

Xayne held the side of his face, and stood up from the floor. He couldn't believe that this was the sort of treatment he was receiving for just helping someone, a friend. Xayne glared at the woman before turning for the door. He was done. Before leaving he told Lightning that he'd leave her alone from now on since his lending a hand upset her so much, he'll stop. He wouldn't show any type of concern or anything for her anymore. If suffering in silence is what she wanted, he'd let her be.

Upon leaving, the room, Xayne bumps and passes by Oraian who tries to ask what happened but the brunet ignores him continues down the corridor. Oraian enters the dark room to see Lightning still sitting on the floor with her head in her lap. The male sighed and approached her. He was able to tell exactly what had happened judging by the broken glass flask that slid from the corner and stopped at his feet in the only patch of light that was present in the room. Oraian knelt down and picked up the bottle while shaking his head. No wonder Xayne stormed out like he did. It was a good thing he had more. "You know," He said looking up from the floor, but still examining the broken flask. "Xayne was just worried and wanted to find some way to help you. Even when I turned down the idea of trying to help you, he was persistent and said some convincing words that changed my mind. He may be over emotional but it's for good reasons."

As usual Lightning didn't care. She never asked for help and therefore didn't need it. She was going to be fine. She stood from the floor and walked towards the door in a slow stride. "You two just need to mind your own business and focus on what's more important." She said looking over her shoulder at the individual.

Oraian quickly ran out in front of the woman, stopping her before she could leave the room. "You are important Lightning, you're fighting with us, we need you. What if you were to collapse and die, gods forbid. then what?"

Lightning gasped quietly and closed her eyes. She bit down on her lip hard as her eyebrows started to curve inwards. There was that question again. The one she was trying to avoid."I'm not going to-"

"You're in denial!." He said cutting the woman off before she could finish. "You know for a fact what's happening to you which is why your turning away from people that are trying to give you help.."

Lightning angrily told Oraian to move out of her way but he stubbornly refused, angering the soldier even further. He then asked her what is it she was trying to do and why did she just want to suffer alone and not allow others help her.

Lightning was growing more and more irritated by the second. She had her reasons and whatever they were was none of their business. She could still hear Oraian firing questions at her and it was pissing her off. Of all people, Oraian was the last person she would expect to step forward and try to help her. He was all about himself this whole time so why care now? Lightning grabbed Oraian by the shoulders and tossed him off into a corner. Seconds after, she fell to the floor grasping her bandaged arm and cringing in pain. She looked over at Oraian, taking deep and slow breaths. "Leave me alone…" She said before leaving the room

On the way out, she ran into Xayne who only blankly stared up at the woman. She looked to be her normal self minus the fact that her arm was bandaged up.

Wait...bandaged up!?

Xayne's first instinct was to grab the woman's arm but he quickly remembered that she wanted no type of help from anyone. He stepped back and looked up at the woman one more time. The vivid blue color her eyes would usually have was so dull that it made the Mako glow appear to be her original eye color.

"What are you staring at?" She asked coldly.

Xayne quickly shook his head and told her it was nothing. Quickly changing the subject to clear the awkward silence, Xayne asked the woman where Oraian was.

Lightning extended her arm and pointed to the room that she had just stepped out of. He nodded and told her that everyone was outside waiting. Lightning nodded and left the ship to meet up with the other AVALANCHE members.

Xayne entered the room to see Oraian peeling himself off the floor. He walked over to the male and helped him up. It was obvious that he had the same luck with Lightning that he did. "I tried to help her but she's too stubborn for her own good." Oraian explained.

Xayne shook his head. "It's fine 'm not really worried about it anymore, Lightning can do whatever she wants from here on out. I could…..care less.." He said, and Oraian agreed."

"On another note, I heard back from the rebel group in Wutai and they agreed to help us out. They responded in perfect timing if you ask me."

"Great, seems things are going better than I had expected. You ready for this?"

"More than you know." He said then slapped the male a high five.

**~xxxxxx~**

All the AVALANCHE members as well as Lightning and Xayne met up outside. Oraian took the floor and started speaking. He informed everyone that the Wutai army as well as the rebel group in that area will be their allys in their battle thanks to Xayne. He went on to explain that he was grateful to everyone who was offering their help and was hopeful that their operation would wipe out the Shin-Ra for good and that everyone will have a better tomorrow.

"What about the citizens living in Midgar? They have to evacuate before the attack." It was Lightning who stepped forward and spoke. She was never for shedding the blood of innocent people.

"Already taken care of Lightning." Xayne quickly spoke back. "The Wutai rebel group are taking care of that as we speak. All of Midgar's citizens will be safe in the villages of; Kalm, Medeel, Gongaga, North Corel, or Nibelhiem before dawn." He informed her then turned back to face his men. Before he went inside to get Oraian and Lightning, He had told his men to break up into four groups with 2,500 in each of them, and they had done just that. "Alright." He pointed to the group in the back. "You all are to take the south. You guys over here," He was now pointing to the group at the center. "Take the east ." Then he instructed the last two groups to take the west and the north but told them all not to attack until they receive the signal which would be a rocket launched into the sky. All the men answered with a loud _yessir _in unison before they all headed for the gate leading out of Wutai.

"Cid said he's gonna stay behind and wait for the signal so he can move in with the airship for the attack. The rest of us are gonna join up wit the Wutai troops in the ground attack." Barret spoke up for him and the other AVALANCHE members.

"You sure about that?" Oraian asked "It's going to be super dangerous on the ground.

"What do you take us as fool, we're no weaklings we've been in worse situations we ain't scared!." Barret shouted out to the male while waving his fist up in the air.

"That's right we can handle it!." Zack added. "We'll be fine."

"Alright." Oraian said then nodded his head. "You guys be careful."

"We will." Cloud replied before the whole group ran off to catch up with the Wutai troops.

"And then there were three. So what's our role in this then huh?" Oraian wondered "I don't only want to lead the attack I want a piece of the action as well!." He complained

"No worries there, come with me." Xayne said and ran ahead of his two comrades. For some reason Oraian had a bad feeling about what Xayne had in mind.

* * *

><p><strong>Wutai Military Base- Airship Hanger 3:59am<strong>

"Woah.." Oraian said as he entered the airship. "This is pretty awesome!." Oraian exclaimed as he looked around at all the buttons and levers decorating the panel, it looked very complicated. He took a seat in the pilot's chair and exhaled deeply.

"I'm no pilot and neither are you...how the hell are we suppose to fly this thing?"

Lightning looked around at everything from the buttons and levers to the gadgets on the side of the wall that launched missiles and rockets. She had a general idea of how the ship worked. But did they?

Xayne shrugged. "No, I was kinda hoping that one of you knew."

"You're kidding….right?"

"Move aside.." Lightning said and took a seat in the pilot's chair. She carefully examined the panel and pushed a couple of buttons. The digital compass flashed on and the engine started. She pulled the lever and the ship engine roared to life.

"Hope you're ready" She said pushing another button that opened up the hatch so the ship was able to rise up out of the hanger.

Xayne and Oraian both nodded and lean up against the side of the wall.

"Wait how do you know what you're doing." Xayne asked feeling just slightly uneasy about the woman controlling the ship.

Lightning pushed a few more buttons on the left side of the panel and pushed a few more at the bottom before pulling back another lever on the far left.

"I don't..." She said in a nonchalant tone.

"O-oh…" Xayne said and sat down on the floor, holding onto the walls of the airship. "W-well that makes me feel a whole lot better.."

"You're so scary…" Oraian commented, snickering at the male. "And you're general of the Wutai Army...haha!."

"Shut up Terrorist!."

When the ship was high enough into the sky, Lightning grasped the lever that was directly in front of her. "Hang on you two." She said to her bickering comrades, and then pulled back on the lever, making the ship take off into the sky at extreme speed.

Too busy making fun of Xayne, Oraian didn't hear Lightning's warning and fell down the moment the ship took off into the sky. He rolled all the way to the back of the ship and smacked into the wall.

Xayne started off with a snicker then burst out into laughter, rolling around on the metallic floors while holding his stomach. "That's what you get Terrorist!."

"Shut up Xayne!." Oraian said as he rubbed the back of his head with his hand. "At least I wasn't scared!." He threw back at the brunet male to try and defend himself.

"Yeah but you weren't cautious either!." He said, laughing. Then his phone started to ring. The male reached in his pocket and answered it. "Xayne speaking."

"_The citizens are all cleared out and have been escorted to safety. You're clear to start when you're ready."_ The rebel group leader informed.

"Alright!. Great job thanks" He said then hung up the phone. "Alright Lightning, send off the signal, that was the rebel group. They said Midgar is in the clear!."

"Got it!." Lightning said then flicked open a panel on the wall and clicked a few buttons. "All done." Two missiles shot off in the skies signaling the ground troops to move in. "We'll be in over Midgar shortly, you guys ready?"

Oraian and Xayne nodded their heads and gathered around Lightning. "There is no turning back now. Let the battle begin!."


	8. Blitzkreig!

**Chapter 8: Blitzkrieg!**

**Midgar Area- 4:30am**

The sound of the rockets whistled through the air followed by a loud bang, signaling that it had exploded. The clicking of guns and the metallic sound of swords being pulled from their sheathe echoed through the early morning air. All the Wutai soldiers from each of the cardinal directions marched forward towards their destination. After walking a few more kilometers to the targeted area, the men were entering the city limits, boots clattering against the ground of the now desolate city.

With the citizens gone, Midgar was almost like an abandoned city. Doors of homes were left wide open dust and smog filled the air, and nothing but the echoing of the soliders boots stepping against the ground could be heard.

**Shin-Ra Inc. -Rooftop Lookout Squad- 4:35am**

"Would you just sit back and relax.." A soldier said to his uptight partner who constantly kept looking down at the city through his binoculars."Everything is fine, you know nothing ever happens around here. No one can come close to attacking this building without getting their body riddle with a thousand holes." He took a sip from his bottle of beer then laid it back down on the ground. "I don't get paid enough for this.."

The man lowered his binoculars for a few seconds and looked at his other four comrades that were just lazing around. Unlike them he took his job seriously. What did he mean that nothing ever happened? Did he forget about the Shin-Ra Terrorist who constantly kept wreaking havoc on the company? "Nothing ever happens huh? Well maybe you all have forgotten that there is a terrorist on the loose trying to destroy the company. That's not serious to you?" He asked mostly irritated by his slacking comrades.

"As I said before," The soldier started as he opened up another bottle of beer. "He won't get passed us!." He laughed along with the other three soldiers as they clanked their beer bottles together and began talking about other matters that were irrelevant to their job.

He rolled his eyes then pulled his binoculars back in front of his eyes. Unlike them he wasn't going to slack off. Though nothing has happened over the past five or six weeks since those two soldiers went AWOL. He just couldn't shake the feeling that something bad was approaching. He could feel it in his stomach. And then-

"Wha…what the!?"

He lowered the binoculars from his eyes and squinted at something he saw off in the distance. He placed the binoculars back in front of his eyes and twisted a gadget on the side of them to adjust the focus and get a better look at what he saw. "The hell…soldiers?" But they weren't soldiers of Shin-Ra, their uniforms were much different. He lowered the binoculars and turned to his comrades in a panic. "Guys quick, sound the alarm we're-"

A loud missile ripped through the sky at high speed and crashed against the side of the Shin-Ra building that the soldiers were stationed at causing a loud explosion that crumbled the side of the building. "What the hell!?" The soldiers shouted in panic as that one side started to give way beneath their feet. "Code Red! Code Red!" One of the soldiers screamed through their walkie talkie. "We are under att-"

BOOM!

Another rocket crashed directly on the top of the roof, killing off the four soldiers that were there.

**Airship Deck.- 4:41am**

Oraian, Lightning and Xayne all stood atop the deck of the airship watching as the carnage below took place. Soldiers of both sides clashed with one another, though a majority of AVALANCHE forces were bombarding through the so called elite Shin-Ra forces. "Seems like we got this in the palm of our hands!." Oraian spoke out with much confidence even though it was just the beginning."

"Don't get so cocky right away. You never know what they're planning." Lightning said as she continued to watch the waging battle below. It had been a while since she'd seen an all-out war like this. She couldn't remember the last time she'd seen such an intense battle like this. Reaching down in the pouch on her leg she pulled out the small Grav-Con Unit and placed it on her index finger. "Now this is where we make our move. Oraian and Xayne, you two make your way to the president's office and take care of him. I'll go and deal with Hojo. After that, we'll meet back up at the center of Midgar. Got it?"

"Roger!." Was Oraian's response Xayne merely nodded.

"Alright here we go…" Lightning snapped her finger against the gravity device and much to her surprise it worked this time. A blue-ish purple energy surrounded her body. "Take hold of my hand."

Xayne did just that but Oraian hesitated. "Woah wait a second!. I'm not too keen on-"

"Shut-up!" Xayne grabbed Oraian's arm and Lightning ran for the edge of the airship before taking a leap off the edge.

The trio began free falling towards the ground at great speed. While Xayne and Lightning acted calmly, Oraian was the only one in all out panic mode.

"AHH! WHAT THE WHHHHHAAAAT! HOW ARE WE GONNA STOP WE'RE FALLING TOO FAST! LIGHTNING!" Oraian shouted which only made Xayne crack up.

"Scardy Cat!" He teased.

"Shut up idiot!."

Nearing the ground, The purple energy around the broke the trio's fall, leaving them with no type of injuries.

"Hah! What a rush!." Xayne said in an uppity manner the looked over at Oraian who was shaking like a leaf. "Aww, you okay ya big baby!."

"Sh-shut up i-idiot I wasn't sc-scared!." Oraian snapped defensively.

Xayne chortled. "Coulda fooled me!."

"That's enough you two." Lightning cut in. "Focus. Now you two remember what you're to do right?"

They both nodded in unison. "Right!."

Lightning drew her weapon in sword mode and held it at her side. "Alright, remember we meet back at the center of Midgar. Clear?"

"Got it!."

**~xxxxxx~**

**Shin-Ra Inc.- 4:52am**

_CODE RED!_

_OUSIDE ATTACK!_

_OUTSIDE ATTACK!_

_CODE RED!_

"Move, move, move!"

Soldier's of both sides ran through the Shin-Ra building slashing through and killing off one another.

"This is operative #A-563 I need more ba-UAAAGH!" Before the Shin-Ra soldier had the chance to finish his message, his throat was slashed and his body fell to the ground. "Nighty-night soldier!." Xayne said and continued through the headquarters with Orain tailing him. "Hey, genius what floor was the prsident's office again? I can't quite remember." Another soldier charged at him and he slashed up the center of his body and kicked him off to the left.

"The 54th floor!." Oraian shouted.

"Got it. 54th floor here we co-"

_CRASH!_

From the right wall a large cloud of dust filled with debris and chunks of cinderblock flew out in front of the duo. Followed by a Behemoth King that slammed into the window on the right, shattering it. "And that's what happens when you mess with me!." Zack jumped through the hole in the wall and spun his sword several times before returning it to his back. "Whoo-hoo I'm on a roll! Ahh?" He looked to the side of him to see Oraian and Xayne standing before him. "Oh hey guys what's up!?"

"Uhm how about, WE ALMOST GOT SQUISHED BY THAT BEHMOTH!" Oraian shouted, raising his fist up at the ebony haired male. Zack chuckled and scratched the back of his head. "Whoops, my bad!. I didn't know you two would be coming through this way. Lucky you _weren't_ hurt."

"Yea _luckily_." Oraian repeated.

"Anyhow where are you two headed anyway?"

"To President Shin-Ra's Office to handle business!." He said pounding his fist against his palm.

"Ah." Zack pointed out towards the hole in the wall. "Well _luckily_ I did break through this wall with that behemoth. there's the elevator that'll take you to the president's office just over there.

"Hah!." Oraian patted Zack on the back before he and Xayne ran for the elevator. "Thanks Zack you're the best."

"Don't mention it. I'll see you guys at the end of this!."

"Bet on it!." Oraian said stepping into the elevator behind Oraian.

**~xxxxxx~**

"Blast these damn machines won't work!." Hojo complained as he rushed around the lab attempting to activate the machine that would activate the Mako Canon. "Dammit with half the power shot in this building I can't do a thing!."

"You won't be able to do anything at all when I'm through with you!." Lightning said as she walked from the shadows of the dimly lit labroom. The soldier narrowed her eyes at the old man as her presence seemed to have startled him for he jumped upon hearing her voice.

Hojo turned fully to face the soldier that appeared to hold some ill feelings towards him. This was no surprise for he knew many of his experiments that survived through testing could never stand being in the presence of him. Most wanted to kill him. All but Sephiroth that is. The silver haired male hated Hojo but he tolerated him for reasons he himself doesn't even know. "Ah, Project L, what a pleasant surprise to see you." He said rubbing both his hands together. "I'm not at all shocked to see you alive and well! This must mean the experimentation I last performed on you was a success."

The old scientist boldly made his way towards the pinkette despite the look of hatred she had on her face. The second he stepped too close into her personal space, Lightning raised Blaze Edge's cold steel blade to his throat. Hojo laughed at the woman's action and shook his head. "Now is that anyway to treat the person who created you dear? When you were bought to me you were damn near dead. And this is the type of thanks I receive. A blade to the throat!?"

"C-created...?" Lightning's hand tensed on the hilt of her blade and pressed hard against the neck of the old scientist. "What the hell are you getting at!?" She shouted through gritted teeth. Her body started shaking and her breathing became uneven and short. Hojo choked and attempted to push the blade away but Lightning only applied more pressure. "Talk you bastard or you die.."

"AGKKH! Sorry about that deary that type of information is confidential and not allowed to be shared!." He said followed by a laugh.

"Fine then die!." She swung back her sword and bought it back to slash Hojo's neck when another blade interfered, a long skinny blade, with the dull edge against Hojo's neck. Lighting's eyes rose from the blade that was hindering hers from offing Hojo. "Y-you!"

A dark chuckled rose from the back of the male's throat as those pools of Mako green settled on Lightning's azure one's. "Good to see you again Lightning. I knew I'd get to have one last face off with you before I finish you off once and for all. He stated calmly and forced the pinkette's sword away from Hojo's neck. Hojo ran back to the Mako canon machine and started messing with it again.

"Sephiroth get out of my way!."

"Not that easy my friend," Sephiroth said holding his blade out and standing in a stance that showed he was ready for battle. "Your battle won't be with Hojo, but with me instead, a death battle of course."

Lightning sighed and assumed her battle position. Visions of what occurred the last time she batted this man drifted across her mind like a movie reel. She wasn't able to stand against him then and knew she still couldn't even now. But she wasn't one to back down from a fight.

"Ah, so you're ready to die hmm..?" Sephiroth said smugly.

"Not in the least!." Lightning responsed and charged at the smug silver haired male.

**~xxxxxx~**

_Ding! "54__th__ floor." _The elevator spoke.

"Alright Oraian, this is it. You ready?"

"Please I've been ready for years…" The male responded.

The elevator doors slid open and If not immediately, thousands of guns clicked at the exact same time and pointed directly at the two.

"Oh…shit.." Xayne said aloud and threw his hands up in the air. Neither one of them were prepared for this which they should have been. This was the floor of the President's office after all. It would be heavily secured while under attack. "We should have done a little more thinking. Yea?"

"Drop your weapons, now!." The both of them did as they were instructed. This felt strangely identical to the occurrence in Nibelheim when the two of them and Lightning were caught.

"Put your foot on you weapon and be ready to pick it up…" Oraian whispered to his comrade.

"Wh-what?"

"Just do it!" Oraian ordered. "Oh.." He hung his head sadly and sighed. All the years of trying to destroy this very company and yet again he has failed. "Seems like I've been caught yet again.." He said in a dour tone. Even the expression on his face had changed. He laughed though nothing at this moment was remotely funny he did it because he felt so _stupid._ "I should have quit while I was ahead y'know."

"The hell you talking-D-ouch!" Xayne shouted when Oraian nudged him in the ribcage.

Oraian sighed and placed one of his hands in his pocket. "But you guys got me, and I'll take whatever punishment that follows." Clenching his hand around something round, the sneaky male slowly pulled his hand from his pocket and nudged Xayne again a sign telling him to get ready. "That is," He smirked. "If you can catch me again!." Oraian pulled the round object from his pocket and threw it against the ground. A large smog of purple smoke fogged up the area, giving the duo chance to escape. The two quickly grabbed their weapons and ran through the some screen, blindly killing off soldiers within the smogged area that could not see. When the smoke cleared up, there were nothing but bodies littering the floor with several wounded soldiers groaning and trying to hold out. "We did it!." Xayne ran for the office of the president , stopping fifteen feet away from the door. "Now let's finish up here and get the hell-"

_CRASH! _

_SHATTER!_

_ROOOOOOOOOAR!_

A giant grey behemoth with visible neon blue veins through it's body, came crashing out from behind the door of the President's office. The creature didn't resemble any normal behemoth that one would see out in the wild. This one looked like something that was created within the walls of Shin-Ra. Being in the line of fire while the creature was swinging, Xayne was struck and thrown back into a wall that he clashed into pretty hard.

"Oh..shit" Oraian mumbled, remaining as stiff as he possibly could. He looked behind the beast at Xayne who was trying to pull himself together after being tossed. The behemoth picked up on the brunet's movements without even looking at him. Another thing Xayne didn't know was that the Behemoth was also deaf as well as blind.

"XAYNE STOP MOVING!." Oraian shouted at the top of his lungs, grabbing his comrade's attention. Quickly the brunet's movements ceased and he remained in his position on the floor. "Why can't I move, what's up now!?"

"Just don't…move. You can talk but don't move…" Oraian continued to stress to a now frustrated Xayne. "This behemoth is one of many projects that Hojo is proud of. It was created from the DNA of breeds of behemoths as well as cells from Jenova and Mako injection. Hence the reason it has that glow in its eyes. You're lucky that hit you took didn't kill you. See the glowing veins on his body? That's the Mako flowing through its veins and the bands of greenish light pouring from his body? is also Mako energy. He has so much in him that his body can't take no more and it seeps from his pours."

"What's this science class!? What's your point genius!?"

"I was getting to that if you just be patient!. The point I'm trying to get across to you is that this behemoth has unparalleled senses. The slightest movement he'll sense it and come after you. Don't even breathe heavy!. What you may not believe is that we have the upper hand really."

Xayne scoffed. "Oh yea and how is that Mr. Smarty Pants if we can't even make one small movement!? Explain that!."

"This behemoth is both deaf and blind. Figured you would have noticed that seeing it's not attempted to attack you except for that one moment earlier. How it picks up on our location is because of the heat from our bodies when we are in motion. But if we act correctly, and time our attacks right, we can kill it. However, our weapons will not work. This thing's skin is like steel. So striking it will only break our weapons. But no worries, that's why things like explosives and magic abilities were invented."

"And that's gonna work?"

"You better believe it will!." Oraian responded. "Now here's how we'll go about this, in a few seconds you're gonna be the first to move and-"

"Huh hey wait a sec why do I have to be the first one to make movement! You know more about this creature than I do!." Xayne interrupted not agreeing with the first part of his ally's plan.

"Exactly dummy which is why you're moving fisrt. Now listen to me!. You're going to pick up that chunk of cinderblock at your feet and chuck it at the behemoth's head. You have to act quickly now because the moment you make even the smallest bit of movement, he's coming for you. So be expedient. Your action will throw him off for a few seconds which gives you another opportunity to hit him with a magic attack. Lightning and Water attacks only! He's immune to anything else. If you're able to hit him with both elements at the same time. You'll daze him since the mixing of the two elements equal something dangerous."

"You sound pretty confident about all this. How are you so sure that'll work!?"

"Uhm…I was in The Department Of Science when this thing was created. I've seen what was used to stop it's raging when it killed seven scientist. I'm the one who stopped it after all." He bragged.

"Oh shut up…" Xayne said and rolled his eyes. "And after that then what?"

""After that, I'll take care of the rest!."

"Okay." Xayne knelt down and quickly picked up the large piece of cinderblock from the floor. As Oraian stated the behemoth was on the move and headed in his direction. Though pretty heavy, Xayne tossed the piece of stone at the head of the creatue. Perfect aim. "Alright!"

But what he didn't expect was for the creature to slap the piece of cinderblock away. "Huh!? H-hey Terrorist!? I don't recall you mentioning that in the plan…"

"UH-OH AHH!" The creature roared and chased the brunet down the corridor. "TERRORST WHAT DO I DO!" He ducked and evaded every time the creature attempted to hit him. "TERRORIST!"

"MAGIC IDIOT USE IT!."

"R-right!." Xayne took a quick glance over his shoulder to see the behemoth was gaining on him quickly. Without a second thought, both his hands emitted a luminescent glow. "Alright gotta time this correctly." Again he took a gander behind him he could see Oraian was only seconds behind the beast but it was dead on his heels. "Dammit!." He didn't have enough room to cast his magic since the monster was too close up on him he needed a distraction. He looked behind himself one last time and nodded his head at Oraian. The two-toned haired male nodded back and reached in his pocket and pulled out a grenade while Xayne picked up in speed. He pulled the safety pin from its place in the grenade and tossed it at the beast, causing the grenade to explode on impact. The explosion alone was not enough to harm the creature however shook the building enough for some debris to fall and knock the creature on the head. The behemoth roared and flailed its arms through the air. This was now Oraian's chance. While the beast was busy trying to recuperate from being struck in the head, he ran up it's back and quickly, while the creature's mouth was open tossed four grenades down its throat. "Xayne let's go RUN!" The two dashed off in the opposite direction of the behemoth as an explosion took place, blowing the behemoth to pieces.

"Whoo…" Oraian breathed and leaned his back against the wall. "Guess we didn't need magic after all."

"You're always stealing someone's glory I wanted to deliver the last blow before the final one!." Xayne whined.

"Oh quit being a baby!." Oraian pushed off the wall and started running down the corridor. "We still have the President left to deal with!."

The duo rushed the rest of the way down the corridor and into the office of the President who was attempting escape in a chopper that was at the window. "Oh no you don't!" Xayne tossed his blade for the pilot of the chopper while Oraian threw a grenade. Both ducked and the explosion occurred, blowing out the windows of that room as well as destroying what was left of the roof. The President's body flew back from the impact of the explosion and slammed against the ground.

Xayne and Oraian both stood up from the floor and glared darkly at the defenseless man. The president shook in fear at the two that were closing in on him. He tried to back further into the corner he was in but that of course was impossible. The man laughed. As much as he wished for this not to be his time, he knew it was. He wasn't at all surprised to see Oraian, but Xayne was a shock for him. "I can understand you reasons Terrorist, but what's yours Nior? You've been a SOLDIER in my company for a few years now. What's with the betrayal all of a sudden."

Xayne tightened his hand into a fist and socked the man directly in the face. He was amazed that he could just sit here and look him in the eyes with no type of regret whatsoever. Not just from the pain he caused him but for others as well. "You're a disgusting excuse for a human being. I'd never join your company without good reason. And now that you're here in the very last moments of your pathetic life, I'll tell you this; my whole time here I was a spy. My only goal was to destroy this company as well as kill you. Twelve years ago, you lead your troops through my hometown and killed thousands, including my family. So now," His eyes flickered to the right where he seen a gun lying between the debris in the room. How convenient this was. The minute he walked away to go grab the weapon, the President quickly tried to scramble to his feet but Oraian poked his sword against his stomach. "You're not going anywhere…"

Xayne retrieved the weapon and quickly walked back towards the president. He connected his fist against the man's face two more times before pressing the rifle against his head. "You die, you bastard!." His finger pressed gently against the trigger but he didn't pull it yet. The President was shaking like a leaf at this point and hyperventilating. "No…" Xayne said in a calm tone and lowered the gun. "That'll be too easy if I kill you off so quickly." Xayne's face twisted up in a very creepy manner and his eyes now resembled that of a psychopath. The action kind of frightened Oraian and he slowly backed off. "Yo, Xayne…what's up with you..man?"

"You deserve to suffer the same way you made the people of Wutai suffer!."

"Yo, Xayne!." Oraian called out.

The brunet snatched Oraian's blade from his hand and poked it gently into the president's torso.

"Wutai!?" The President said in utter shock all this time he had a Wutai spy in his company and was unaware of it.

"But," Xayne calmed down snd took a few breaths. "If I wasn't doing this for Wutai, I would torture you to your last fucking breath!." He said darkly. "This..this is for Wutai.." Upon saying this Xayne shoved the blade through the president's torso and a loud shot followed.

**~xxxxxx~**

"Dammit all!" Lightning cursed lowly as she stood just meters away from Sephiroth breathing heavily, tired, and hurting from all the movement and blows she's taken from this battle with the silver haired male. The fight was now on the outside after a strike from Sephiroth sent Lightning sent her crashing through the wall of the labroom. But most of all it was the Geostigma that was really holding her back from what she was fully capible of accomplishing.

Sephiroth held his position as he watched a fatigued Lightning attempt to regain her strength. He showed no signs of injury or tiredness though they had been fightning non-stop for at least two hours now.

Lightning took a deep breath through her nose and stood and her notable battle stance.

Sephiroth smirked and wavered his sword through the air then extended his arm out and provoked the pink haired girl to come at him. With no hesitation in her mind, Lightning charged full force at the male.

Sephiroth smirked and waited until the pinkette was just feet away from him and leapt just a few feet from the ground and swung masamune down to strike against the pinkette's head but the strike was stopped when the pinkette swung blaze edge under it, but the great impact from the clash caused the ground to start crumbling away under the pinkette's feet. Lightning quickly waved her hand through the air and casted the spell Thundaga which created a large bolt of lightning to zigzag down from a cluster of clouds in the sky and strike the silver haired individual.

Lightning took this chance to push up on Sephiroth's blade and shove him back. She swiftly swung her blade in an arch and connected it with the base of his back, sending him flying several hundreds of feet into the air.

Sephiroth quickly caught himself in the air and landed gracefully at the top of one of the buildings. His eyes averted downward and searched the grounds for his rival though really he wasn't searching at all, he knew exactly where she was coming from. "I'd think you'd be a little more discreet with your location." The man jumped to the other end of the building and slammed his foot against the side causing debris to fall towards the pinkette who was scaling the building's side.

"Shit!." She wasn't expecting this. The pinkette continued dashing up the building's side perrying as much of the falling debris as possible raising her sword as she neared the menacing individual at the top. "Sephiroth!"

The moment she came face to face with the male and was close to striking him, his body was suddenly engulfed in a swarm of what appeared to be a thick darkness and vanished. All that was left behind were long black feathers.

"What the!?"

Before she had the chance to even react or search around for the male, like the speed of light, Sephiroth swooped down from above the woman and dragged Masamune diagonally across her back then kicked her towards one of the many Midgar buildings.

Lightning's body slammed hard against the concrete rooftop, denting it upon impact but the woman quickly rolled to her feet despite her aching limbs. She didn't know how he managed to move so damn quickly but the silver haired menace was now gliding down from above her. One of the questions that lined her mind was where the hell did he get wings? No, a wing.

Just as he descended from the sky Lightning evaded by side jumping to the right while bringing his sword up over her shoulder to defend herself against that hellish weapon that once again clashed against her weapon.

"I'll give it to you Lightning, you're lasting longer than I'd expected." He said in a mocking manner. "But you can't beat me!." In a flash the silver haired male was positioned at the side of Lightning and was now swinging vertically at the pinkette who was just seconds away from being struck had she not turned her blade in the direction of Sephiroth's swing. She then ducked, avoiding another swing that just missed her jugular area.

**~xxxxxx~**

**Shin-Ra Inc.: President's Office-7:55am**

"He's dead..."  
>Xayne and Oraian both looked down at the bloodied corpse that was lying at their feet. The man they killed used to be President Shin-Ra, but now he was breathless. Sword threw the stomach and one bullets to the head. Murdered in cold blood.<p>

Oraian ripped his eyes away from the body of the president and walked toward the window that showed what used to be the beautiful view of Midgar. But it was now full of nothing but the smell of smoke and the stench of blood. A battle ground of war. There was nothing but silence now. Bodies from soldiers on both sides littered the ground, some wounded while others had succumb to death. Oraian closed his eyes and said a small prayer for the Wutai soldiers that gave their lives. The sun rose slowly over the horizon as greeting a new dawn. "Shin-Ra is no more..." He said aloud.

Xayne's eyes were still locked on the body of the President. He still couldn't fully grasp that he was actually dead and that they were the one's that did it. He'd wanted this for the longest yet, and he should be celebrating but he didn't feel an ounce of happiness.

_'Revenge isn't as great as you think it is Xayne. You get it then what?'_

_'Satisfactory!.'_

Satisfactory...? This wasn't at all satisfying. He walked to Oraian's side and looked out the window at all the carnage. All this just to get to one person. So many died. He never pictured it to be this way. He thought for the most part that a majority of his soldiers would come out unharmed maybe some would have been wounded. But no, the ground was littered with soldiers from his army and the Shin-Ra army. "What type if general am I..." He said in a doubtful tone. Lightning was right revenge wasn't sweet at all. It was bitter and left him feeling nothing but guilt.

"A good one, Xayne." Oraian said and turned to the brunet. "You did what any general would do. You lead your troops into battle and came out victorious. Many died I know, but that's just how war is. Your soldiers didn't die in vain and I'm sure that they didn't go into battle thinking this was a mistake. They knew that they were doing this for a cause.."

"You're right." He smirked then punched the male in his arm. "You know, you're not so bad after all Oraian."

"That's Terrorist to you!."

Xayne blinked. "Oh? What happened to you wanting me to call you by your name huh?"

"Wha- nothing!. It's just it doesn't sound right when you say my name that's all!."

"So you like the name Terrorist?" Xayne pushed.

from"Just shut up jerk and never call me by my name again!." He huffed and turned his back. "Anyway, let's get back to the center of Midgar, Lighting may be there waiting for us."

"Yeah, she's waiting alright..." Xayne pointed far out across the city where there seemed to be bright sparks emitting from behind a building. "She must still be at it with Hojo, let's go!."

**~xxxxxx~**

Lightning flipped back twice then held Blaze Edge up to protect the front of her as Masamune nearly came across her torso area. Sephiroth swung Masamune with great force towards Lightning's weapon to break her guard and winded up breaking the sword portion of her weapon in half.

Lightning tried to retaliate in a hasty manner by switching her weapon into its gun mode, when suddenly those symptoms began to strike her. The pinkette grabbed hold of her arm that was bandaged up for that's where the pain had started. Of all times they decided to strike her now? The bandage quickly started to darken with that dark ooze and leak out, making the pain even worse.

"D-damn..." She fell to her knees in front of the silver haired male, dropping blaze edge and grunted as the pain started traveling through her body like usual but it felt more severe.

"You're weak Lightning you'll never beat me." The male said in a mocking manner and held Masamune againt the pinkette's throat.

Lightning reached down for her weapon but Sephiroth kicked it off the building's edge. "This is your end." The male said and swung Masamune for the woman's neck.

Lightning quickly rolled to the left and stood back to her feet despite her current state. If there was nothing else in the world that she hated, she hated being called weak. The pinkette seen that the silver haired male was coming for her and as fast as her namesake, she flashed a few feet away from the male and casted the spell Firaga.

Sephiroth smirked and disappeared into darkness before the spell had the time to connect. "Too slow!" He said now positioned in the back of the pinkette.

"Wh-what!" By the time she decided to whirl around it was too late and the blunt edge of masamune struck Lightning in the back of the head. Lightning gasped and grunted. All she could hear was a loud ringing in her ears and her vision became doubled. She suddenly started to stumble and lost her footing on the edge of the building. "Sephi….roth…" Lightning reached out an arm as if she were trying to reach for the silver haired menace but all she grabbed was air and fell backward off the building. Little did she know while falling, that the Bhuinivelze material slipped from the pouch. "Hmm…" Spotting it, Sephiroth quickly leaned over the edge before it was able to fall any further and obtained it. "Hmm..what do we have here?" Down below, Sephiroth could see two figures approaching the location in which him and Lighting had been fighting. He sighed and put the material away. Tightening his grip on masamune, he gave it a quick few swings before pointing it down at the two below.

"Oh no Oraian look!" Xayne shouted out and pointed out only a few feet away from their destination. Oraian stared up in the direction the brunet was pointing in and gasped. "Light!." The two quickly rushed to their comrade's aid and Xayne caught her just before she was able to hit the ground. "Lighting! Lightning wake up!."

Oraian looked up at the tall building where Sephiroth stood as if he were waiting for something. "Sephiroth!" He yelled, clenching his fist while pointing a finger out at him. Sephiroth calmly looked down below and smirked at the individual. "Ah, the notorious Shin-Ra Terrorist."

"That's right! You scared!?"

Sephiroth could only snicker at Oraian's comment it wasn't intimidating in the least. "Scared of-"

The ground beneath their feet suddenly began to shake and tremor. Oraian lost his balance and fell against the ground while Sephiroth kept his balance on the building top. Looking off into the distance, the Mako eyed soldier was able to see exactly what it was that was causing the ground to shake. "Ah so he was finally able to do it." A giant cannon could be seen raising up from the very center of the dilapidated Shin-Ra building. A bright glow of green-ish blue energy began to form around the muzzle of the cannon and started to grow in size by seconds. Oraian and Xayne was also able to see when it came into view. "This…this can't be good.." by the time a minute had gone by, the energy ball was the size of the moon.

"Xayne we gotta get out of here!." The brunet nodded and picked Lightning up in his arms and they made a run for to escape Midgar from the crisis that was about to occur. The cannon still continued to gather energy which soon was engulfing the entire cannon itself as well as swallowing the area surrounding it.

**~xxxxxx~**

**Shin-Ra Inc.:Laboratory-8:15am**

"Yes, Yes this is it!." Hojo said pushing several buttons on a panel preparing to release the Mako Energy. "And here we go!." He pushed a large button on the control panel but the cannon stalled and gave off this whirring sound. "What the! What is this, what's going on!."

**~xxxxxx~**

"Hurry Xayne we're almost there!." Oraian shouted to his comrade in the back of him. The ground had slowly started to crumble away under their feet and small pieces of the ground's surface began to float in place around them as if gravity was fading from existence. Oraian looked off in the direction of the cannon when an odd noise sounded in his ears, a whirring sound. "The hell!?" The development of the energy ball had started to increase to the point that it engulfed the entire city of Midgar. But what occurred next shocked the duo. A fire started to break out around the neck of the giant device of destruction and spread down further catching onto other areas within the building. The device began falling to pieces and created a large explosion that swallowed the entirety of Midgar!.

* * *

><p><strong>Nope not over yet. The events in the next chapter will draw this story's conclusion. Stay tuned!.<strong>


	9. Revelation

**Chapter 9: Revelation**

'_I created you…..'_

'_Wh-what…what do you mean by created? I….'_

'_Project L…'_

'_Who…who am I really?'_

'_Am I really just some project after all…?'_

"_No, Lightning you're not. If you were a project, how is it that you remember me and Fang.."_

'_I-I don't know maybe you're just a figment of my imagination…I don't know what to believe anymore..'_

"_Lightning…."_

_The pinkette's eyes fluttered open but everything around her was dark.__ "Th-this again…" She sat up to get a better look at her surroundings. Everything was like a dark abyss that went on and on for gods know how long and bands of light were freely flowing around her again. "Right…." She remembered being here before. This was her, subconscious. The sound of cracking filled her ears and she looked down to se a crystal path starting to form under her feet and stretch out through the darkness, repeating the process from the first time._

_"Alright Vanille…" She mumbled and started her walk along the crystal path. Though unlike last time it didn't shatter up and break. "I know you're going to show up…" A bright glow showed up at the end of the pathway, making Lightning pull her arm over her eyes to block it away. There was that light again. "Come Lightning.." The pinkette lowered her arm slowly to see the figure of Vanille standing at the center of the illuminating light. "Follow me.." Vanille's for disappeared into the brightness and Lightning followed in suit. Unlike the first time, the pinkette was very cautious this time about running along the crystalline path, keeping her eyes on the path rather than straight ahead._

_The light swallowed the pinkette but instead being surrounded by blank white space, she was now a room. It was a medium size room with a bed, table television and other things that would be found in a room. On the left wall was a row of different types of boomerangs nailed up across it while one of them sat folded up on the nightstand. "Where…" Started but she was interrupted by a feud that was taking outside the room._

_"I'm not a kid anymore. I can look after myself! Besides I never asked for you to look after me you offered! I don't need you to make my decisions for me! I can decide myself and I'm joining the army!"_

_"Like hell you are!"_

'_What the….'_

_Lightning made her way towards the door to see what all the racket was about but a figure stormed in the room and walked right through her. The pinkette quickly turned around to see a teary eyed boy franticly turning his head around the room as if he were looking for something. 'Hope….' She called out lowly recognizing the boy by his appearance._

"_No one understands me…"_

_He said then dropped to his knees and reached his arm under his bed. The boy pulled out a black duffle back from under the bed and quickly began stuffing his clothes and other necessities within it. He sniffled and wiped the tears from his puffy red eyes._

"_I don't care what she says….I'm leaving. It's not like she payed me or anyone much attention lately!."_

"_Hope.." Lightning said and knelt down beside the silver haired boy. She didn't understand what had him so upset until another figure caught her attention at the door of the bedroom. Herself. "Me…?" _

_Gasp!_

_Then something in her mind clicked. It was like a surge through her brain that was suddenly bringing things back to the front of her mind, important things. "I-I…" She stood from the side of a broken Hope and stood alongside herself that was watching Hope. "I did this.."_

_Hope stood from the floor and for his way to the door of the bedroom. Lightning watched on as Hope made his way down the stairs for the front door. "Stop him…" Lightning said to herself, watching as a foreign expression became visible on her face._

"_Hope!."_

_The pinkette shouted as she ran to the banister, stopping the silver haired boy in his tracks but he never turned around to make eye contact with her._

"_If you walk out that door I…"_

_Lightning stood behind herself waiting to see what she would say but nothing came and Hope left without another word. The soldier's eyes grew wide and she fell back against the wall. "I remember this day now.." She watched herself sink to the floor upon Hope leaving and she did the exact same. There was silence. She knew that after her and Hope's fallout there was nothing that she would be able to say or do to change his mind. All she wanted to do was protect him and look after him but it seemed that she was over protecting him and not allowing him to make his own decisions which ultimately pushed him away from her and she didn't even realize it._

"_Don't you ever come back either…" She heard herself say in an angered tone. She sighed and dropped her head against her knees._

"_This was my fault…."_

_Flash_

"_Hmm…?" She stood up from the floor noticing that her surroundings had change. See was now located in what appeared to be an office. Amador was just finishing up with situating his files and was about to close up and go home for the evening until the door had swung open in a fierce manner. Lightning walked in an sat down in a chair across from her Commander's desk. "Ah, Farron. What are you doing here I thought I sent you home hours ago you really need to rest up withal the work hours you've put-"_

"_Give me a mission.." She said dryly. Looking at her Commander with those cold icy eyes. "I don't care what it is or the difficulty; just give it to me…" She said in a demanding tone that he never heard the Sergeant speak to him with._

"_Sorry Farron but as of now, I have no missions or tasks to send you on, however if you come back tomorrow then-"_

"_No!." She shot up from her seat and slammed her hands down against the Commander's desk. "I can't.." She took a few deep breaths and shook her head. I can't wait until tomorrow..I need one now.." She said in a desperate tone._

_He sighed and looked down at the folder on his desk. This was a mission that he had originally lined up for PSICOM Enforcements but they had no knowledge of it yet so he could easily pass it on to someone else. Someone else like Lightning. "Alright Farron.." He said and discussed the mission with her._

_Flash_

"_Ah Farron you've returned. Give me the break down."_

_Lightning shook her head. "No Fal'cie sir. Even if it was, how would they use it? With Cocoon crystalized, how would they use its Fal'cie anyway?"_

_Flash.._

_Lightning stood on the rust eaten bridge in Oerba and looked off at the crystalized structure. The cool morning breeze of the Pulsian lands blew across the soldiers face as she sighed. "I think…I think I found it..Vanille and Fang. A way to bring the two of you back…."_

'_The Lifestream…..'_

_Flash.._

"_Lieutenant Amador, Sir." Lightning said as she removed the pauldron that represented her rank from her left soldier. "I quit…" She said and dropped the piece of military equipment on to the desk."_

_Amador looked down at the piece of equipment then back up at the woman with eyes filled with confusion. "Wh-what Farron…why?"_

_She reached for the door knob and grabbed it,before looking over her shoulder. "Because I don't need the strict laws of the military holding me down from a personal mission I'm on. Lieutenant, I'm going back to Midgar…"_

_Flash_

_Choppers rushed across the skies above the large city, flashing their bright lights as if they were searching for something or someone. Lightning ran through the Midgar streets turning down corners and occasionally turning around and shooting at the soldiers that were on her tail every so often. Several of them dropped to the ground rolling around and shouting from the gunshot wound while others fell to the ground and never moved again._

"_Get her!." Some other soldiers shouted as they ran after her._

"_Hmph!." Lightning ran up a wall and pulled herself up over the edge but waiting at the top were some soldiers, a large crew of them. Lightning held tightly on to the hilt of her blade and swung it a few times through the air. The soldier's guns clicked, and the ones with swords pulled them from the sheathe. They all stood like statute for moment, the pinkette included. Lightning narrowed her eyes and took a deep breath before slowly drawing her sword back. She was studying these men and trying to figure out a strategy that she could use to successfully take down all the soldiers. But something about this set of soldiers were much different than the first handful that she took on earlier. Their eyes had a peculiar glow to them. "What the…?"Her eyes briefly turned up at the star littered night sky of Midgar, looking as two choppers hovered just above the building that she and the soldiers were on top of. "Tch…alright then let's get this over with…" Little did she know, Lightning was charging into a situation that was going to dramatically alter her life._

_Flash_

"_Do you see now?" _

_Vanille spoke appearing several seconds after the flashback. Everything around her was once again black. Lightning sat down with her eyes turned up at the void of darkness up above. "How could I have.." She couldn't believe she'd forgotten so much. But she was glad to finally have remembered it all. But there was one thing that was still stumping her._

'_I created you..'_

"_I do Vanille but..I'm not sure if I can believe it all.." If everything she seen was true, and those memories are truly her own. "Then what did he mean..?" Lightning looked down at her hands as she rose from her place on the ground. What if this was just some symptom of her sickness? What if she truly was created by Hojo and just suffering from some delusion? Vanille doesn't exist nor does Fang. No Hope..what if they are all just an illusion that her mind created and is making her believe that they are real. What if she's completely lost it and she's on some journey searching for nothing? She shook her head. "There is no real proof that anything I'm experiencing isn't an illusion. I am sick after all I wouldn't be surprised if it is."_

_Vanille giggled and patted the soldier on the shoulder. "Of course you're feeling that way your memory has been gone for a while but.." The red-head smiled as she slowly started to fade away "That's up to you decide. Wake up Lightning. But fully this time!__."_

* * *

><p>"Lightning!"<p>

"Hn..?"

Lightning slowly opened her eyes. For a few seconds everything was extremely blurry but quickly cleared up.

"Lightning!?"

She closed her eyes again and breathed slowly. She didn't feel like moving honestly. Her head was throbbing with pain and her body was aching all over. Her eyes rolled in her head and she almost fell unconscious again but _his_ voice kept her from slipping away.

"Lightning! Lightning!"

The pinkette opened her eyes again. There she saw that silver haired boy again. She smiled a little bit and reached out, gently her fingers glided along his cheek. "Hope…."

'_Again, why does she keep referring to me as this person..?'_ Xayne took hold of Lightning's hand in his own and held it to his chest. He almost said he wasn't Hope but wanted to hear what it was that she had to say, to figure out why she kept calling him by that name. "Yea…Light."

"I-I'm sorry….for.." Before she had the chance to finish her sentence the vision of Hope faded and Xayne was visible once more."X-xayne.." Lightning shook her head and blinked a few times before she sat up. She made a painful sigh and placed her hand against her forehead. "Wh-what's going on…?" She looked around at the unfamiliar location to see Oraian sprawled out on the ground a few feet away from them unconscious. All they were sitting on is a cliff large enough for them to walk around on. "What the hell…is-" Lightning peeked over the edge and seen nothing but energy from the life stream flowing down below. "What in the name of Eden? Xayne what's going on here…!?"

"An explosion." Oraian said as he sat up holding his head. "That's what happened." The dual color haired male stood to his feet and looked over the edge as Lightning did. "Man oh man…" He turned around and looked up he could see nothing but darkness. "How far down have we fallen?"

"I'd say pretty damned far if you ask me." Xayne responded and joined Lightning at her side. "Now what do we do and how do we get back to the surface?"

"What do you think idiot?" Oraian extended his arm and pointed up. "We climb."

"Watch who you're talking to Terrorist!."

"And if I don't?"

"Then I'm gonna-"

On any other occasion, Lightning would have grown overly irritated by the two's constant bickering and make them shut up with some type of threat. But her mind was elsewhere. The solider sat on the cliffs edge and stared down at the green-ish substance. Everything that they'd been through up until now, what they'd accomplished to get this far. Could it really have been some silly illusion she was chasing? She shook her head. The more she thought about it the more believable it came. But the only thing keeping her from believing such a thing was-

"Hope….?"

Well that was strange? It was like someone spoke the name was thinking. No someone did. She looked to her side. Xayne was there and he repeated the name again. "Hope. You mention him a lot you know. And sometimes refer to me as him. Most of the time it's when you're waking up or the Geostigma is bothering you. Who is he?"

Lightning shook he head and slipped her hand into the pouch on the side of her leg. "Don't worry about-" The pinkette pulled her hand from the pack's center pouch and frantically searched the rest of the small compartments. "No.." She said slightly panicked and searched the center compartment again. "This can't-" She looked over at Xayne who tilted his head sideways, baffled by the soldier's current mood. He scratched his head. "Light what's-"

"Do you have it?"

"Wha! Have what?"

"Looking for this?" Sephiroth levitated out from underneath the small platform with the materia in hand. The silver haired man chuckled and closely observed the material then held it out in front of him.

"You…" Xayne stepped forth but Sephiroth swiftly extended his blade and pressed it against his stomach.

"What's your damage yo!." Oraian shouted out at the menacing man. "Shin-Ra is gone which means your problem with us should be too. What the hell is it now!?"

Sephiroth's eyes left the glowing orb and settled on the purple eyed male. He smirked and before anyone had the chance to do or say anything further, his eyes flashed to Lightning and the material slipped from his fingers.

Almost instantly Lightning dropped to the ground and reached for the luminescent orb, but a sharp pain struck her shoulder. The pinkette gasped out but made no cries of pain. She's already been feeling so much of it that almost didn't faze her. She only breathed out a strained breath and squeezed her eyes shut tight. The materia rolled from the palm of her hand and fell down below in the into the life stream followed by droplets of her blood that was spilling over the edge. "N-no…"

"What's my damage you ask?" He said and pushed his blade a few inches deeper into the pinkette's shoulder causing her to grunt and bite down on her lip. "My grudge against you three should be gone because Shin-Ra is no more!." He slowly twisted Masamune the woman's shoulder. "Well, then let me break the news to you. "I don't give a damn about Shin-Ra. I can humbly admit that I am quite glad that you destroyed the company. But my grudge is with the three of you." Masamune went the rest of the way through Lightning's wound and pierced through the dirt. The pinkette took small short breaths and curled her fist against the surface. With the amount of blood she's lost since earlier all the way up until now, she began to wonder how she was still alive. "I know what you're up to and it interferes with my own plan." He snatched the blade from the pinkette shoulder and returned it to its place at his hip.

"Plan!?" Oraian shouted. "What plan!?"

Sephiroth chuckled darkly. "Wouldn't you like to know. I can show you better than I can tell you. He said before vanishing into a cluster of dark feathers.

"Grrrr Coward!?" Oraian called out raising his fist. "What is he up to!?"

"Lightning no!." Xayne quickly ran to the edge and caught the woman's arm before she could compleptely go over the edge. "Are you crazy!?"

"Lightning what are you doing!?" Oraian asked right after. "Are you trying to kill yourself?"

The pinkette didn't answer. Her eyes stayed set on the flowing energy below, where Sephiroth had tossed away her reason for being here. "Kill myself..?" She breathed. "No, complete my mission…yes." She replied.

"Light just give me your hand...please.." Xayne begged the woman as he extended his hand out to grab for her's "I'm not letting you do this..." He said, his voice cracking with every word.

Lightning kept her eyes focused calmly flowing energy just meters below her feet and started to think. She'd gone through hell and high water just to get that materia and just to throw it all away like that only made her question what was it all for? She sighed then looked up at Xayne, a small smile stretching across her lips before looking off to the side. "I started this journey for a reason Xayne, it was to get my friends back..and even though other boundaries may have thrown me off track, it's still my priority."

He shook his head and held on to her hand tighter when he felt her slipping. "That's insane Light, have you any idea what being exposed to the lifestream will do to you!? You'll..." He bit,down hard on his lip and squeezed his eyes shut as he tried to hold back the tears that were threatening to fall. He couldn't believe that he was about to cry. But he'd developed a bond with Lightning that he didn't have with anyone else. An unexplainable friendship that he didn't want to fade. "I-I can't lose you Light..."

Lightning looked up at Xayne but as usual when she was in a delusionary state she seen Hope. She knew this was only real to an extent and looked back down at the lifestream. "Hope…" She said knowing he wasn't really there. "I'll be back, I promise. Until then, you and Oraian take care of things on top and handle Sephiroth. Like I've stated before, I came here for a purpose. When I'm set on a mission I will not back out until it's done. I know the two of you were only sticking with me up until this point and I don't want you two to feel like you have to stick around any longer."

When Xayne eventually lost his grip, Lightning nearly fell but Oraian swiftly reached out and grabbed the soldier's arm. This shocked both Lightning and Xayne knowing the purple eyed male's true attitude towards the both of them. "At first I was in this just for one reason, but sticking around the two of you long enough, I've realized a lot. You're not in this alone Lightning, Xayne and myself are going to help you weather you let us or not. And I never thought I'd say this, but I'm agreeing with him on this one Lightning. Being exposed to the lifestream for a long period of time will surely kill you."

The pinkette chuckled. "So you're trying to stop me too now Oraian? Out of the two of you I expected Xayne. But you? That's utterly shocking to me considering how you stopped at nothing to destroy Shin-Ra. If anyone I thought you'd understand me the most." She explained. Besides, I'm dying anyway right? Because of this Geostigma..I'd rather die trying to accomplish a mission rather than die doing nothing."

"Then I'm going with you…." Xayne added but his comment was ignored.

"Right….." Oraian nodded. He recalled the many attempts when he tried to destroy Shin-Ra and even though he failed over and over again he still kept at it, not caring what anyone said. There were even times when the AVALANCHE team didn't want to be bothered with him because he wanted to jump back at Shin-Ra right after an attempted attack. But over the years he learned how to strategize and correctly execute infiltration missions. Which is how he succeeded his Shin-Ra destruction mission. So if anyone he understood Lightning's position. "Okay Lightning." With no further thought, Oraian released the woman's hand.

"LIGHTNING!" Xayne yelled and attempted to jump in behind the woman but Oraian grabbed him and pulled him away from the cliff edge. "You jackass!" He yanked himself free and punched Oraian in the face. "He ran an looked over the edge but there was no longer any sight of the pinkette "No.." He shook his head then slowly stood to his feet. He snapped his head in Oraian's direction an charged at the male. Grabbing him up by the collar he slammed his back against the rigged rocky wall and connected his fist with the side of his face again. "Do you realize what you just did!?" He punched the male again but Oraian didn't retaliate. Xayne punched the male once more then pushed him on the ground. The brunet walked back to the edge and looked down at the flowing lifestream again. He was hoping Lightning would come back up soon. But he knew that that wasn't going to happen. "I have to go in and find her.."

"Do you realize how asinine that sounds Xayne?" Oraian said standing to his feet. "I'd have a better chance of survival in there than you do. You've never been exposed to Mako before. Mako isn't a damn thing compared to this. This is the life stream. Before Mako is Mako. Shin-Ra would process it first. You think that-"

"I don't care Terrorist about any of that!. I'm not scared of dying..I'm going to find Lightning." He smiled. "I'll be back, trust me and when I do. The three of us will pick up where we left off got it? Until then," He walked backwards to the edge of the cliff. "You and the rest of AVALANCHE take care of things up above and stop Sephiroth." He waved his hand up at the male and nodded. "I'll see you soon."

"XAYNE NO!" Oraian peered over the edge as Xayne's for fell from the cliff. He watched as his body descended lower and lower until he was gone within the lifestream.


	10. Epilogue

**Chapter 10: Epilogue**

It's been six months since the day Lightning and Xayne dove into the Lifestream. Oraian could remember it so vividly he almost thought that it was just yesterday that it occurred. Afterwards he attempted to climb his way out of the giant creator but his efforts were useless because he kept falling back down. But lucky for him, Cid and the other members of AVALANCHE decided to search the creator. They bought Highwind down and rescued him.

He was very glad to see that all his comrades had made it out of the crisis alive and well as they were for him. When asked about Lightning and Xayne, Oraian shook his head and lowered it. All the AVALANCHE members looked around at one another whispering amongst each other before lowering their heads as Xayne did, getting the idea that Xayne and Lightning didn't make it. "They're gone." Xayne said the whole group before picking up his head. "But not for long, they'll be back no doubt about it." He told them with a stroke of confidence in his voice. "Until then we have a job to d guys and it starts with cleaning up the mess Shin-Ra has left behind."

Since then, a new organization has been developed called the World Regenesis Organization (WRO). An organization that was created to protect and restore the planet. Though the planet has been under good care thanks to the WRO there are still those that are out to harm it of course. But recently nothing extremely serious. Oraian warned everyone to keep a close eye out for Sephiroth but since that day in the crater, there had been no sign of the man. There were times when Oraian went on missions alone to search for the man but eventually gave up when he couldn't find him.

But now, here he was, in the city at the exact same spot where everything ended. Midgar was now nothing but ruins. Had its occasional monsters here and there but nothing he couldn't handle. Then with the exposure of the Lifestream he was shocked that this place didn't become infested with monsters. Oraian looked down in the creator where he was able to see the glowing pool of energy that his two comrades dived into and sighed. This wasn't the first time since the incident that he came here. The number of times were uncountable but he knew it was every day. He'd come hoping that when he did he would see the two climbing from the crater and back to the surface with the material in hand so they can all continue their journey together. But days turned into weeks and weeks turned into months. And there was still no sign of them. While others gave up and believed that the duo was dead, Xayne didn't. They made a promise that they would return and he was holding them to it. The purple eyes male stood to his full height and smiled a small smile. He turned his back and started walking away but quickly stopped. Looking over his shoulder, he said; "I'm going to need you two to hurry up back now…it's been well over_ soon_ since the two of you left..hurry back now Lightning. You too you idiot, Xayne..."

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><p><strong>-END<strong>

**Well people that's all there is. Well at least for this story that is. Solitary and Rebellion is finally over. Took me long enough though. Anyway, its over but not really. There is a sequel to this story. Which so happens to have been my very first FanFiction. That will be the continuation of this story. I do have to go in and make some small changes though but afterwards I will start with updates on that. But, I do hope you all enjoyed this story as much as I did writing it. Again thanks for keep up with it.**

**-::Ominous_Advent::-**


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